Avoiding Darkness
by Talim Sparrow
Summary: A sequel to A New Light, I've recapped the first story so that it isn't necessary to read the first, but it probably would make more sense if you did. The continuing story of Kiara as the new goblin queen and her friendship with Jareth.
1. Chapter 1 Recap

Chapter 1: Recap

Almost two months after Jareth gave the moonstone to a woman to restore his power the labyrinth was starting to fully return to normal; as normal as the labyrinth can be. Jareth looked out his throne room window and wondered if fate threw that girl into his life just in the nick of time to save him and his kingdom.

Roughly twenty years ago, Sarah Williams solved the labyrinth and Jareth proclaimed his love for her; unknown to him at the time he was bound to her the way all fae couples are bonded. When she rejected him and returned to the aboveground he began to grow weak and his kingdom started to die. Normally in the underground destiny brings two fae together and they are bonded for life and when one dies the other will soon grow weak and follow. It was almost too late, Jareth could barely move when Kiara wished herself away. While underground she was so full of magic that anything she was around would slowly come back to life. Jareth commanded her to stay with him and keep him alive until a more permanent solution was found.

Kiara loved magic and fantasy so much that she readily agreed to help out. During her stay she began to change into a fairy; fangs began to grow, yellow circles formed around her pupils and eventually she grew wings. She didn't have much control over her magic so Jareth began to teach her and have her try different spells, one of which was a spell that would allow Jareth and Kiara to be connected so that he could take magic from her whenever he needed. Unfortunately for Jareth a side effect of the spell was that he could sense whatever Kiara was feeling; it occasionally was quite uncomfortable for him, but he never told her about it. When the kingdom was restored the energy connection was broken, but he was still able to feel what she felt and worse than that the connection was getting stronger.

While wandering the labyrinth one day Kiara used a spell to give life to statues resembling Jareth's parents. The statues told her that a legendary moonstone would give Jareth the option to select a new bride and restore his power. After finding the stone the two went off to a large event at the fae high court; Kiara spent the time posing as Jareth's personal servant which meant she spent most of her time in the dungeon with the other servants.

By the end of the event Jareth had two realistic choices, the first was a woman named Vivian who was next in line for Jareth's throne already. She was originally biding her time until he died, but when Kiara was thrown into the picture it ruined all her plans. She would have been a perfect choice being such a strong, magical fae, but the fact that she tried to harm Kiara and that she wanted to banish the goblins from the labyrinth made Jareth think twice about her. The second lady was Princes Tia, a dainty, stuck up princess with little magical power. She would have been an easy choice for Jareth if she didn't want Kiara banished to the aboveground.

Very few fae like to be in the labyrinth for very long which is one of the reasons Jareth was extremely limited in his choices. He also really liked having Kiara around even though he would never admit that to her and so did not want to choose a bride that would have him get rid of her or try to kill her. Vivian went to Kiara's cottage shortly after their return home from the high council and a magical battle began between them. Vivian was much more practiced and had the upper hand, but Kiara was able to get in a few shots of magic. Eventually Vivian was ready to send the killing magical bolt when Jareth stopped her and banished her from the labyrinth.

Kiara's wing was badly damaged from the fight and it hurt her for about a month to move any part of her body. She was almost ready to accept that Jareth was going to pick Princess Tia and she would have to return aboveground when Jareth surprised her by giving her the moonstone. She wanted to stay in the labyrinth more than anything, but she had to admit to him that she did not love him. Jareth already knew that and he did not have those kinds of feeling for her either, however he did not hate it when she was around and that would be enough for him.

By the law of the underground the two were married, but Jareth did not want anyone outside of the labyrinth to know about it. He announced to everyone that through spells and loopholes he was able to restore his own magic. Kiara was quite upset that he was embarrassed to have chosen a human/fairy, but she was content enough to be able to stay in her cottage outside of the goblin city. Jareth told Kiara that she was to continue to act the part of his servant girl whenever someone from outside of the labyrinth came or whenever they went out of the labyrinth. She agreed even though she hoped someday that Jareth would be able to admit the truth to everyone else.


	2. A Visit From Kenisha

**A/N Own nothing as usual. I hope everyone likes the sequel, I've been working on it for awhile. Thanks to my beta who deals with me sending her hundred of pages of writing. Enjoy!**

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Chapter 2: A Visit from Lady Kenisha

Around two months after Jareth gave Kiara the moonstone life in the labyrinth was starting to return to normal, everything was back to full power, the goblins were busy annoying their king and labyrinth worked extra hard to confuse its runners. Kiara was spending the morning reading in her living room grateful that she had yet to deal with any stuck up fae visiting the labyrinth. Her happy thoughts were interrupted by a goblin knocking at the door.

Kiara slowly got up and found Rabz, one of the more intelligent messenger goblins at her door, "Hi Rabz! What do you need?"

Rabz bowed down deeply to his new queen, "Lady Kiara, his majesty sends for you. He wishes you to come right away."

Kiara rolled her eyes wondering why Jareth couldn't just have sent her a crystal, "Alright, I just need to get dressed and then I'll go. Would you mind doing me a favor? Could you please go down to Hoggle's house and ask him to take a look at my window, it's stuck again."

With another deep bow Rabz began to run down the road towards Hoggle's house. Kiara smiled thinking how lucky she was to live so close to the handyman of the labyrinth; it also helped that he was her best friend and even though he constantly grumbled at her he didn't really mind doing the things she asked. She turned into the house and started getting dressed while considering if she should walk or fly to the castle. Her wings were still sore but really needed some exercise; on the other hand walking would mean Jareth would have to wait longer for her and she was all for annoying the Goblin King.

Kiara started her walk through the goblin city which was much busier than normal. All of the goblins were rushing around almost as if they were trying to stop a runner that got too close to the city. Kiara was sure that she didn't feel anyone enter the labyrinth and briefly wondered what was going on while she walked. She reached the castle fairly quickly and headed straight towards the throne room where she was surprised to see Jareth completely alone, no goblins anywhere.

Jareth was staring out of the window watching the goblins prepare for Lady Kenisha's arrival; she was the first of the fae to be visiting since the magic was restored in the kingdom. He felt Kiara enter the room, but ignored her until she came right up next to him and asked him what was going on.

"Lady Kenisha will be arriving shortly with her dwarf. Go and get dressed in your servant clothes," Jareth commanded as he waved her away to do his bidding. He wasn't really surprised when she stared at him defiantly and didn't move.

"Say please," she teased.

Jareth turned at the small girl and glared at her, even though he wasn't surprised that she would be difficult he didn't like being disobeyed, "Go and get dressed in your servant clothes."

One quick look around the room showed Kiara that they were still completely alone, "The deal was that I play servant when someone is watching and I see no one here so say please." Jareth's stare grew harsher and Kiara's smirk grew as well. She loved to make him angry to a certain extent and she knew that he liked to do the same to her.

"Kiara, please go and get dressed before I throw you headfirst into the bog of eternal stench."

Kiara smiled brightly, "See Jareth, the word doesn't hurt." She laughed and walked to her bedroom on the second floor of the castle. She wasn't sure why she really needed a bedroom of her own since she had a cottage, but Jareth insisted that it was hers and she could use it whenever she wanted. So far she only used it to store her servant clothes and a hairbrush. She pulled out one the dresses she had some of the goblins alter to suit her better. Kiara had some scars on her arms and across her chest that reminded her of very bad days so she asked the goblins to make her a dress with longer sleeves and a higher neckline. She also had them make the back lower so her wings could fit through.

Kiara couldn't wait until Lady Kenisha arrived because she wanted to see her friend Rubina again. Rubina and Kiara spent a lot of time together at the high court and became very fast friends. She was also happy that they were the first to visit since Kenisha was much more laid back than the majority of the fae. Compared to the rest of the fae Jareth was even considered extremely easy going and possibly even nice. Kiara shuddered to think how cruel the rest of them could be to their subjects. She hoped she would have the opportunity to ask Jareth if she could show Rubina around and relax a bit.

When she was finished getting dressed Kiara headed back to the throne room to wait for Kenisha to arrive. Jareth was continuing to ignore her leaving her alone in her thoughts, which even since she came to the labyrinth was not always a safe place for her to be. She started getting a little fidgety until she thought of something to ask Jareth.

"Lady Kenisha is queen of the mermaids right? Will you take me there someday; I would like to meet a mermaid." Jareth made a small noise that was not really an answer, but more of an indication that he did hear her and just didn't want to talk. Kiara thought some more, "Have you ever been there?" Jareth was starting to get annoyed; he really didn't like being talked to when he wasn't in the mood to talk. "I'll bet you look sexy as a merman." Jareth turned away so that she wouldn't see the smile that comment brought, but he wasn't quick enough.

"Perhaps one day when you are not so incompetent with your own magic, I will allow you to visit."

"Oh thank you so much your royal pain," Kiara replied sarcastically, "I am queen don't forget and I don't need your permission. Just point me in the right direction and I'll practice breathing under water."

Jareth opened his mouth to start yet another fight between them when a goblin cut him off announcing that Lady Kenisha had arrived. He glared down at Kiara, "We will discuss this later, come sit on the floor by the throne."

Kiara sighed and nodded as she followed Jareth to the throne and sat down on the floor next to him. She made a mental note to try to learn some cleaning spells; the floor was sticky with what she hoped was only ale that the goblins had spilled. Soon Lady Kenisha and Rubina walked in and Kiara couldn't hold in her excitement at seeing her friend again. "Rubina!" she called as she started to get up to greet her, but Jareth grabbed her arm and pulled her back down to the floor. Kiara looked down at the ground not wanting to see the real anger in his eyes.

Lady Kenisha looked down at the fairy with some distaste, but just ignored the outburst. Rubina stayed two steps behind her good naturedly shaking her head at Kiara. Jareth sighed thinking that no one would ever really fall for Kiara being a servant, he got up and greeted his guest and the two began to make some small talk.

The two servants sat on the floor next to each other, neither speaking. Kiara had to bite her lip to keep from trying to start a conversation. Lucky for her Jareth dismissed the two servants and went to show Kenisha to where she would be staying.

As soon as the servants were out of hearing range Kiara jumped on Rubina giving her a large hug, "I'm so happy to see you! You have to come and see the cottage Jareth had built for me." Before Rubina could even respond Kiara was pulling her towards the castle entrance.

"Jareth is really lenient with you, which is really good since you make a horrible servant," Rubina said laughing at her friend.

"I know I am terrible and I know I will hear it tonight. Oh well, how long are you staying for?"

Rubina shrugged slightly, "I am not sure; Kenisha wants to leave before Tia and Broderick visit. She doesn't really like either of them."

"Tia is coming?" Kiara asked, "I was hoping she wouldn't ever visit. Who is Broderick?"

"Yes, Tia will be visiting soon," Rubina looked around as she walked to make sure no one was listening, "I hear that she still wants Jareth to marry her."

Kiara's eyebrows raised and she put her head close to Rubina's so they could gossip without the goblins hearing, "But he doesn't need a wife anymore."

"Yes, but the rumor is that she still wants to try since she never bonded with anyone; maybe she is hoping to at least be his consort."

"Ick, well I hope she finds someone else to bug. Now who is Broderick?"

"Prince Broderick," Rubina stared at Kiara for a moment not understanding why she didn't know who he was, "Jareth's brother."

"What?!" Kiara yelled and scared all of the goblins near her. They all knew that she wouldn't purposely hurt them, but they didn't trust her control over her magic. Kiara starting walked faster out of the goblin city, "Jareth never said anything about a brother."

"Hmm, well you're new still." The two of them walked in silence for a bit as Kiara thought for awhile about what Rubina just told her. She was jealous that Tia was going to try to steal Jareth, but she wasn't really sure why. Sure they were married, but it really didn't mean anything to them. She only agreed to the marriage to save the kingdom and she knew that eventually Jareth would most likely find someone to have an heir with; she just wasn't ready for someone to try so soon.


	3. Rubina Meets Hoggle

**A/N Yay Either people already like the story or they are willing to give it a chance. Own nothing, yada yada. **

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Chapter 3: Rubina Meets Hoggle

The girls came up to Kiara's cottage and she happily started talking about when Jareth showed it to her and how Hoggle and the goblins had built it for her. She was glad that Hoggle had just recently weeded her yard so that it looked really nice for her guest and the two of them entered the house.

"I think there is someone in your kitchen," Rubina said as the two heard a noise of metal clanking followed by a long string of obscenities.

Kiara started to laugh, "That's just Hoggle, hopefully fixing my window. Come on and I will introduce you." The two girls walked into the next room and saw the dwarf cleaning out the pipe over the stove.

"Girlie, I told you to keep an eye on this and let me know if starts to get clogged!" Hoggle yelled while he cleaned and got himself covered in dark ash.

"I still don't know how I am supposed to know; it's so dark up there. Anyway, get your head out of there and meet Rubina." Hoggle grunted some sort of greeting, but didn't turn around. "Hoggle take two seconds to turn around and say hi."

"Fine, hi," he started as he looked at Rubina. The two of them stared at each other for a few minutes and Kiara suddenly felt a wave of magic pass her. She didn't know what it was at first but it kind of tickled. "Umm, would you want to come over to my place and I'll cook you something?" Hoggle actually got shy and looked at his feet while he asked Rubina on a date.

Kiara stood there in shock as Rubina started to blush and answer, "Sure, I'll be over in a couple of hours. I'll give you time to get cleaned up." Hoggle mumbled something else and walked out the door and down to his own house leaving Kiara's kitchen looking worse than the castle kitchen.

"What the hell was that?" Kiara asked, "Did you just put a spell on him?"

Rubina shook her head and continued to blush, "No I didn't but I think we might have bonded." She was suddenly really happy and giddy.

More ash came down through the stove pipe accidentally caused by Kiara's magic as she started to understand what was going on, "You and Hoggle are bonded? I thought that only happened between fae couples."

"No, it also happens to the rest of us, only not as strong and we don't die if the other one does."

"Wow, does that mean you two are married now?"

Rubina laughed at Kiara, "No, he still has to ask me and I hope he waits awhile before he does that."

"Well I guess we better get you dressed up for your date," Kiara pulled Rubina into the bedroom and started working on getting her to look her best for dinner.

Meanwhile at the castle, Jareth and Kenisha were sitting in the library reminiscing about old times. The two fae were very close in age and spent a lot of time together growing up; the only reason they grew apart was because Jareth had to take over the labyrinth at a young age and Kenisha went to learn about the kingdom she was destined to rule.

"Now Jareth there is something you are not telling me about that fairy of yours," Kenisha said as she leaned over Jareth's chair. He shrugged, but Kenisha was not going to let it go, "Jay, I know you better than any other fae. You never had a personal servant before and you are really easy on her. I also couldn't help but notice that you gave her the moonstone."

Jareth looked up at Kenisha trying to think of a quick lie, "Don't call me that and of course I didn't give her the moonstone."

A small laugh came from Kenisha, "Jareth, it was glowing after you pushed her down to the ground; i was really easy to see the glow through the dress. If you don't want anyone to know I would suggest making her wear thicker clothes and darker colors or maybe put it in a pouch around her neck so that the glow doesn't shine for all to see; I think you like her."

Jareth stood up and scowled at Kenisha, "She is an annoying human that asks too many questions."

"But you like having her around, you like to annoy her and even though you won't admit it to yourself you like to see her happy."

"I don't hate it when you're around, I like to annoy you and it doesn't displease me to see you happy," Jareth answered.

Kenisha smiled, "And I know you like me, so you do like her. That makes two people on Jareth's list of who he can actually stand to be near." Jareth couldn't help but smirk as he rolled his eyes at her. She was right and he couldn't stand most people which was probably why he preferred being with the goblins.

That evening Kiara watched as Rubina walked down to Hoggle's house and started thinking of her own plans for the evening. She pulled out a crystal ball and asked it to show her what Jareth was doing; an image started to appear of Jareth sitting out on his balcony. Kiara smiled and popped the ball; she knew that if Jareth was sitting out there then he wouldn't mind some company. He might not like it if she tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't make her leave. She changed into her normal clothes and stretched her wings. She decided to give flying a try; it would be her first time flying so high with her fairy wings. With a run and jump she was in the air flapping away and soon was steadily flying towards the castle.

By the time Kiara arrived at the castle her back muscles were incredibly sore and she was exhausted, but she managed to land on the balcony and sat in the chair next to Jareth's. He glanced over at her and smirked a bit, "That was a terrible landing and you did not make a decent servant today. Get control over the glowing of the moonstone or hide it better."

Kiara put her hand over the stone and looked down trying to see if it was glowing right then. "I don't know why it glows, do you?"

"No."

"Oh," she thought for a bit before telling Jareth the good news, "Rubina and Hoggle bonded today, I think." Jareth didn't respond, but instead continued to stare out over the labyrinth. "Who is Prince Broderick?"

"No one important," Jareth tone indicated he didn't want to hear any more questions about him, but that never stopped Kiara.

"That's not a nice thing to say about your brother. When is he visiting?"

Jareth glanced over at Kiara and let out an annoyed sigh, "If you already knew who he was then why did you ask? He'll be visiting next week sometime or if I'm lucky he will be eaten by a dragon on the way."

"Please tell me you don't really mean that," Kiara looked at Jareth feeling a mixture of sadness and anger. Kiara grew up constantly moving from one orphanage and foster home to the next and never had any family of her own; she never even had the chance to get to know people well enough to feel like family. She really didn't like to hear that Jareth didn't like his own brother.

Jareth looked very unhappy, "Yes I do, I would not be in the least bit upset if a dragon snatched him right now."

Kiara got out of the chair angrily and jumped right off the balcony letting her wings carry her away. She wasn't sure how she knew she would even be able to do it since she never practiced soaring before, but her fairy instincts took over and she made it home and went straight to her bed.

Jareth stood at the edge of the balcony watching Kiara leave and feeling the pain she was feeling. He really hated having the connection with her and no matter how much magic he tried he couldn't end it. He also hated feeling guilty especially since that was a fairly new emotion for him; he never experienced it before he met the girl. With a wave of his hand he released some of his own anger into making a few things explode and headed towards his own bed. Making Kiara annoyed and slightly angry was fun, but making it so he felt terrible wasn't.


	4. Finding Fairies

**A/N Own Nothing, just having fund borrowing these characters and torturing them. Thank you notwritten for the reviews, its nice to see you reading my stories again. Love to my beta, phantom and to anyone else to reads. Enjoy!**

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Chapter 4 – Finding Fairies

A couple of days passed by and Kiara was starting to get annoyed that she barely got any time with her friend. She walked down towards Hoggle's house and saw the two of them sitting in his garden. Rubina was being overly flirty and Hoggle was still being shy. Kiara wanted some company and almost went to interrupt, but changed her mind before they saw her; instead she headed to visit Didymus and Ludo wondering when they would bond with someone.

Didymus, as always, was happy to see her and Ludo gave her a large hug almost crushing her wings. "Ludo, Ludo watch the wings please." Ludo gently put her down and held onto her hand as he led her to his cave. Didymus followed and listened while she told them about Hoggle and Rubina.

"I never thought my brother Hoggle would find someone to bond with, but I am glad for him anyway. When shall we go meet the fair lady?"

Kiara shrugged, "Right now they are too involved with each other to notice anything else."

Didymus nodded, "Yes I remember what it was like for the first few weeks."

"Huh?" Kiara looked over at Didymus; this week was over loading her brain with new information, "You are bonded with someone?"

With a sad look Didymus nodded, "My lady was beautiful, kind, noble and skilled with a sword."

Kiara took note that he said his lady "was" all these great things and tried to change the subject. "Well I guess I better see if Jareth needs me to be his servant girl today. He probably doesn't since I can't keep my mouth shut." She said goodbye and slowly walked towards the castle wondering if she would ever bond with anyone. Now that she was a creature of the underground, the same rules should begin to apply to her. She knew she had to start thinking of her life differently. Aboveground she was 27 years old; she should have been ready to find a steady boyfriend, get married, and have children within the next ten years. By underground standards she was still very young and had plenty of time to worry about finding someone.

Instead of heading towards the castle, Kiara went to the forest wanting to spend some time alone. She sat down on a fallen tree and thought more about what her life was turning into. There were so many good things in her life now that she was also angry at herself for being upset and jealous that Rubina bonded. She should be happy for her friend, not jealous. She wasn't alone for very long when a man stepped up behind her and called her name.

"Ahh!" Kiara yelled as the man startled her. A lightning bolt shot from the sky and hit just a few inches in front of the person.

"Kiara, calm down it's only me," Gannon said as the smoke around him cleared. He looked at the damage she did to the ground and briefly wondered if he should be afraid, "I didn't mean to scare you; Jareth sent me."

Kiara was happy and sad to see Gannon. He was a nice fairy boy, but if he was in the labyrinth then most likely so was Princess Tia. "Does Jareth want me to come back to the castle?"

"I guess so," Gannon said as he shrugged, "He looked really angry at something and told me to go and find you in the forest; it only took me a minute or so to fly here."

With a worried nod Kiara stood up and stretched out her wings; she was almost embarrassed to fly in front of another fairy since she only tried a few times. "I'm not very good yet."

Gannon laughed, "Don't worry, take my hand and I'll help you out." He grabbed her hand and held it tightly. Kiara couldn't help but notice how warm it was and how nice it felt to have another fairy to be with. All of her bad feelings went away as the two of them took off slowly into the air, not really rushing towards the castle.

Shortly after Gannon left the castle, Jareth's anger also faded. He was glad to see that Kiara was no longer overly upset at something. A tiny part of him deep within his mind wanted to go and fix whatever was wrong himself, but instead he sent Tia's fairy. Now he was almost starting to regret it, because Tia had her arms around him trying to flirt. He pushed her aside and sat back on his throne.

"Oh Jareth, I know you don't need a queen anymore, but this place could use a woman's touch and I could make you a very happy man."

He was actually considering it; before he lost his power he never knew how lonely he felt. When the power returned and the goblins started to love him again he found that it wasn't enough, he very much wanted someone like him to be with. Now there was a girl practically begging to stay with him in the labyrinth, how could he refuse it? "I will think about it," was his answer and Tia didn't have any time to say anymore before the two fairies came in through the window still holding hands.

"Oh Jareth don't our fairies look cute together," Tia said as the two bowed before their masters. "Would you mind if I borrowed her for a little while? I have a lot of dresses just her size that might make a better outfit than those rags."

Kiara bit her tongue, slicing it with her fangs; her dress was made by the goblins just for her and she wanted to smack the princess for calling them rags. Jareth nodded and gestured to Kiara that she should go with Tia. As Tia walked away towards her room Kiara glanced back and looked at Jareth with a fake glare. She wasn't sure what this woman had in store for her, but she figured she could zone out through it. Kiara hoped she could deal with it for the short time she was there.

Sixteen outfits, twelve hairstyles and 3 makeovers later and Kiara was starting to really hate this woman. Princess Tia might have been over two thousand years old, but she was acting like a seven year old girl with a new doll. Jareth walked into the room on the last outfit and Tia had him sit down on the bed until she was ready to show him how good his fairy could look. She went back to Kiara for some finishing touches which ended up being adding makeup to cover up the scars. Kiara was in her own personal hell and Jareth started to voice his impatience.

"Princess, hurry this up so that I can send her on errands," Jareth demanded and Kiara silently thanked him for helping her out of being a life sized Barbie.

"Alright here she is, now what do you think?" Tia asked as she brought Kiara over to Jareth. The dress was a reddish brown color with a very low neckline and a see through waist. The bottom was loose but still showed off her hips and almost reached the floor. Her auburn hair was done up in an exotic bun with a few messy curls nicely placed at random spots. Even though Jareth could sense Kiara's anxiety, he couldn't look away from the beautiful woman in front of him.

"It is not an adequate dress for a servant. How could she possibly do all of her chores in that gown," Jareth said when he finally found his voice.

"I think she is showing too much of herself," said a new voice from the doorway. The three looked over to see Kenisha leaning against the wall looking over the dress. She wondered for a moment what Kiara did with the moonstone when she saw a small bag on the floor attached to her serving dress belt. She nodded to herself and continued, "Let the poor girl get back to work. I need her to collect Rubina for me so that we can be on our way."

Kiara smiled at Kenisha and nodded, "Yes your highness, right away," and stood up to change back into her other dress. Tia pouted for a minute at the loss of her entertainment, but found a new distraction sitting on her bed. She went to Jareth and began to try again to get him to see what a great wife she could be.


	5. Brothers

**A/N Own Nothing, You know I was just going through my favorite stories list and noticed that only one of those stories has been finished, thats just so sad. Anyway one reviewer seems to think that Tia should choke on a perfume bottle. Who agrees? **

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Chapter 5: Brothers

Kenisha followed Kiara out of the castle and surprised Kiara by walking right next to her. "It seems like I will be going home without Rubina, but I hope she doesn't stay with that dwarf for too long," Kenisha said. Kiara glanced up but didn't respond wondering why the queen was even talking to her; usually fae only spoke to their servants when they needed something. "Now tell me why would a queen pretend to be a servant?"

"I wouldn't know, your majesty," Kiara answered keeping her eyes down.

The mermaid queen put her arm around the small fairy's shoulders, "Well I think you should take the moonstone out of that pouch and wear it proudly. It would certainly piss off Tia."

"Jareth told you?"

"No," Kenisha said with a laugh, "But I saw the glow through your dress. Jareth better come around soon and let everyone know he is already married or Tia won't give up. She is determined to be the one to give him an heir."

"She might as well stay since I'm not going to be the one to do give him an heir." Kenisha shrugged and continued to walk with Kiara. She changed the subject to Rubina's eventual wedding if Hoggle ever got up the nerve to ask her.

The two found Rubina and Hoggle sitting on a stone bench in his garden. They stopped talking when they saw Kenisha and Kiara approach and Rubina bowed to her mistress waiting for her command. The queen took a short look around the garden before speaking to her dwarf, "Rubina, I will be returning home. I will expect you to be returning in one week."

Rubina looked up in surprise, "You wish me to remain in the labyrinth?"

"Yes, but for only one more week. I want you to keep an ear out for anything interesting going on." With a wave of her hand Kenisha transformed into a dove and flew away.

"Wow, she makes a beautiful bird," Kiara said and Rubina nodded her agreement; however they didn't get long to watch her fly away before getting interrupted by someone new walking into the garden.

"Shouldn't you two be cleaning up after the horrid goblins?" the strange man asked. Kiara looked at him and although she was sure that she never met him before he looked familiar. He was fairly tall, had long dark hair and eyes that pulled her in.

Finally, Kiara came to her senses, "Who the hell do you think you are ordering me around? Go stick your head in the bog." Hoggle's eyes grew wide as he made some scared noises and pulled Rubina back with him away from Kiara. The man's eyes fill with rage and he moved his hand like he was hitting something. Without even being anywhere near him Kiara felt like his hand actually strike her with enough force to knock her down. She cried out and put her hand up to her cheek, it was already really hot and sore. She tried to send her own magical wave, but the man blocked it and sent another smack to the other side.

Hoggle finally got up some courage to speak although he stayed cowering behind his new girlfriend, "Your majesty, the girlie didn't know who you were. She is new to the labyrinth."

"And just who is this creep," Kiara managed to say before getting hit once again.

"I don't care if you know who I am or not. You must be able to tell that I am your better. I am Prince Broderick, Prince of the Goblins and King of the Underworld," Broderick said as he looked down on the girl. He was amused at how she still tried to look defiant.

"Former King of the Underworld," Hoggle mumbled so that only Rubina and Kiara could hear.

Broderick walked around the fairy and quickly snatched her belt pouch. "Give that back!" she cried and attempted to use magic to get it, but quickly found herself on the floor again.

"As Prince of the Goblins I still have my spies in here and know that you have the moonstone. I always knew my brother would sink so low; it was bad enough that he bonded with a human but to actually choose to marry one is just terrible." Broderick took the moonstone out of the bag and barely heard Rubina whisper to Kiara.

"You're the queen and you didn't tell me?" Kiara sent her a small glance, but kept her eye on Broderick. She really didn't trust him.

"When Jareth finds out you hurt me he will kick your sorry ass," she said trying to sound much braver than she was.

Broderick just laughed as he kicked her wings. She gasped out in pain and tried to control the expression on her face. "You won't be telling him and neither will the dwarves. If you so much as slightly step out of line I will destroy the moonstone and poor Jareth will go right back to dying again."

Kiara sighed temporarily defeated. She didn't know for sure if the destroying the moonstone would actually hurt anything, but she wasn't willing to risk it, "What do you want me to do?" The two dwarves looked at Kiara in shock; they weren't expecting her to give in so easily.

"I have plans for the labyrinth and you will help me. Do exactly what I say, do not question me, do not tell Jareth and do not talk back; if you manage to behave then the moonstone will stay safe. I am sure I will see you at the castle," he laughed at Kiara as he turned away walking towards the Goblin City.

Slowly Kiara got up off of the ground and tried to move her wing; one major drawback was how vulnerable these new appendages made her, one small bruise and her whole body ached. She turned to the dwarves and waited for an explanation, "What the hell is going on now?"

Hoggle came out of hiding and told her what he knew, "I wasn't around when Broderick became King of the Underworld, but I did hear that he got drunk one night and lost it to Alexander who is now King of the Underworld. I've heard rumors that he wanted to get his rights to the labyrinth back."

"I don't understand why Vivian was next in line for the throne if Jareth had a brother?"

Rubina answered, "Because he had a kingdom of his own; the high council very rarely allows a fae to control more than one kingdom. The closest anyone comes to that is if the King has one and the Queen has the other."

Kiara let out a long sigh and resisted the urge to lie back down on the grass, "I guess I better get to the castle before the royal ass gets pissed at me."

"You might want to look at yourself in the mirror first and try and cover up those bruises," Rubina said trying not to stare at her.

With a worried look Kiara ran into Hoggle's house to the first mirror she could find. Rubina was right; her face was completely swollen and covered in bruises. She wished that she was good enough with magic to try to cover it up, but she knew that she would probably make it worse. After a deep breath she attempted it anyway, but when she opened her eyes she saw that nothing had changed at all. She felt like crying as she very slowly walked to the castle; how was she going to keep this from Jareth?


	6. CoverUp

**A/N Aww thanks Notwritten, love having you as a reader. Own Nothing. Another thing I noticed today is that when I started this story suddenly a bunch of people started to read my other story from a different category.. hmm... Anyway back to the torture mwahahaha....im to old to be cackling meniacly.... ill think of something better**

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Chapter 6 – Cover Up

During the time that Broderick and Kiara were getting to know each other, Jareth was beginning to give in to Tia. He decided that it might be a good idea to let her hang around as a consort for at least a little while. Perhaps he would grow to like her some day, but for now she was willing to be around goblins just to be near him. Tia was sitting on his lap kissing him when he suddenly felt a painful sting on the side of his face. He jumped up, temporarily forgetting that Tia was sitting on him.

"Jareth, what was that? You dropped me!" Tia exclaimed as she picked herself up and dusted off her dress. Jareth was heading towards the mirror until Tia grabbed his arm, "Jareth? What's wrong?"

Jareth felt his cheek and was surprised that he didn't feel anything there. He looked into the mirror and didn't see anything either. "I thought… Never mind, it's gone now; let's head down to the dining room for something to eat," he took her small hand and led her through his castle which was just as much of a maze as the labyrinth. He barely reached the room when he felt the rush of fear coming from Kiara.

Tia noticed Jareth had stopped walking right in the doorway and looked around to see what was wrong, "Um, Jareth? Are we going in?"

Without a word he sat down at the table and waited for his goblins to serve him. Tia sat down next to him wondering what had gotten into him and how long she would have to deal with it. Jareth mostly ignored her throughout the meal; he wanted to ignore Kiara's feelings as well, but they were getting much stronger and when she finally was done being afraid he breathed a sigh of relief that he was once again able to focus on Tia. A few minutes of actually listening to her talk and Jareth decided he would rather deal with Kiara's emotions. Tia did not stop talking about meaningless gossip she had heard about people Jareth didn't care about.

The two were just about finished eating when a goblin announced Prince Broderick's arrival. Jareth closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose; he really didn't want to deal with his brother right then, not that he wanted to at any other time. He forced himself to get up and held his arm out to Tia. She smiled glad that she was making progress with him and the two walked together to the throne room to meet Broderick.

Broderick was waiting by window when they arrived in the throne room. He turned and put on a fake smile for his brother, "Jareth, how nice it is to see you. I'm glad to see that you maintain some order in this… place."

Jareth took a small breath trying to keep his temper in check, "How long will you be staying? I will get the goblins to make sure your old room is in order."

"It's still there, how wonderful. I thought you would have turned it into a little room for all your teenage girls that manage to get themselves lost in here."

"And how is the underworld doing?" Jareth asked with a smirk. He knew perfectly well that Broderick had lost it, but he didn't mind playing dumb if it brought his brother down a peg.

Broderick kept his fake smile, "I wouldn't know and I am sure that you already knew that Alexander now controls the underworld."

"Oh yes, I remember now," Jareth's smirk grew larger as Tia held on to him tighter. He was suddenly glad she was there making him look even better in comparison to Broderick. He was just about to make another condescending remark when he felt a wave of anger flow through him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Kiara was trying to eavesdrop on the three of them. She almost ran past the door when she saw that he noticed her.

"Is that your disgusting little fairy? I had heard you had one, but really Jareth they are quite a nuisance."

This time Jareth's anger was his own, "You will see that my fairy makes a perfect servant."

"Perfect?" Tia asked in disbelief. Jareth shook his head at her and called out for Kiara to come into the room. She wanted to pretend that she didn't hear him, but that would make him look bad and she did want to hear what was going on. She slowly entered the room with her head down and her hair covering the sides of her face. She tried to remember everything Gannon and Rubina had told her she should do and did her best to hold her tongue. "Hmm, well she is behaving herself now isn't she?"

"I had heard rumors that you were actually decent to your subjects, I am glad to see that they were wrong," Broderick said trying to provoke his brother into an argument. Jareth wasn't really sure how to respond to that. He knew that he was better to his people that most fae, but he always tried to appear like he didn't care about them as long as they did what they were told. He just shrugged and his brother continued, "Well you must be starving this one; look how disgustingly thin she is even for a fairy. You couldn't even choose a decent looking one?"

That last comment was too much for Kiara to handle and she looked up glaring at Broderick. She was just about to tell him once again where he should stick his head when Jareth interrupted her, "What happened to your face?"

"You can't be my dress up doll looking like that," Tia cried, "I don't have enough cover-up to fix that."

"Look at that Jareth, your fairy has had an accident probably to purposely get out of being Tia's doll; how inconsiderate of her. If you need me I will be in my chambers, goodbye Princess, Jareth," Broderick nodded to the two fae as he left the chamber. As he passed Kiara he whispered in her ear, "Not a word or the stone will be destroyed." She lowered her eyes and waited until Tia also left the room to change into an evening dress to look up at Jareth.

Jareth slowly walked over to Kiara to inspect her face and also her one wing which he noticed was drooping slightly, "Who did this?" She was almost afraid of him; his voice was very low and sounded furious.

"You shouldn't care about your servants; I'm not fae so I don't count," Kiara knew that statement would only make him angrier, but she didn't really know what to say and needed more time to think of a lie.

"You are my queen, whether they know it or not and I will not have someone harm my personal servant even if you weren't queen. Now tell me right now who did this to you," he said as he grabbed her arm. She tried not to cry out even though he was hurting her.

"You're hurting me and no one did this," Kiara answered as she looked down, "I fell down in the Escher room."

"Stop lying to me!"

Kiara looked straight into Jareth's eyes, "I fell down in the Escher room."

"You don't know your way out of there; do not lie to me again," Jareth's eyes were full of anger that was growing with each word. Kiara's eyes started tear up as she almost broke down and told him the truth. Finally the tears did spill, but she refused to say anything. No matter how mad Jareth would get at her it wasn't worth it; at least the stone would be safe.

"I fell down in the Escher room," she said one last time through the tears. Jareth could feel her pain and knew that she was keeping something important from him.

"Fine, go home and don't come back until you are ready to tell me the truth." Kiara nodded and left the castle but didn't return home right away. She stayed on the steps to finish out the tears and tried to think of what she should do. She couldn't think of anyone that could help her and she wasn't sure who she could trust. Broderick said he had spies in the labyrinth, only he knew who those were. She finally got up deciding that the best thing to do was to stay away from the castle for as long as she could. Hopefully Jareth would be safer if she stayed away.


	7. Another Side of Jareth

A/N Thanks to notwritten for the continuing reviews and to phantom for betaing. Own Nothing, just borrowing

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Chapter 7 – Another Side of Jareth

Over the next couple of days Gannon came to visit her whenever he had time away from Tia, which wasn't as often as he was hoping. It was becoming more and more obvious to Kiara that he was interested in her and although she wasn't really sure how she felt about him, she knew that it was nice having him around.

"So how old are you?" Kiara asked during one of his visits.

"A little over 700 I think; once I hit 100 I kind of stopped counting," he answered with a smiled.

Kiara was stunned for a minute before she remembered that in the underground people age much differently, "You are robbing the cradle then; I'm only 27."

He just shrugged, "Age doesn't really mean that much down here. You were born aboveground so it's natural that you would be much younger than me. I was born down here so I lived out a full fairy childhood and that takes a long time compared to yours."

"How long do fairies live?"

"I know many fairies have lived to be about 3,000; but I think most live to around 2,000."

Kiara nodded slightly trying to compare fairies to other creatures, "But dwarves don't live that long do they?"

"I have no idea, but dwarves always look much older than they are so maybe they always look old," Gannon answered laughing to himself.

"It just seems weird to me," she admitted. She was about to ask more about fairies when Gannon interrupted her with a kiss. He was extremely gentle and Kiara didn't know how much time passed until he broke away. She smiled at him not knowing what to say anymore. Gannon smirked satisfied that he finally did what he had been trying to get the nerve to do for days now. After the happiness of being kissed subsided Kiara began to feel confused and she wasn't really sure why, "Gannon, I don't really know if I am ready for a relationship. I mean I feel like I just moved to the underground and I am getting used to being a fairy and Jareth's slave and I don't know if I can deal with it all right now."

Gannon sat back a bit still keeping the smirk on his face, "Then let's just have some fun, no strings attached. It probably will be better that way since I don't know when Tia will be leaving, but for now we can have some fun."

"Alright," Kiara agreed and the two went back to making out, which soon led to making out into the bedroom, which eventually led to getting into bed. Gannon left in the middle of the night to make sure he was ready for Tia when she would call for him the next morning. Kiara waved goodbye and slipped back into bed feeling completely relaxed.

The next morning Kiara really didn't want to get out of bed; she was so warm and comfortable. She took a few extra minutes to lay there and make a to-do list for the day and eventually got herself up and sleepily walked into her living room to get her laptop. Her eyes were still blurry, but she saw a figure in her living room. Luckily for him she was too tired to overreact so her magic didn't try to blast him. She rubbed her eyes a bit and saw who it was sitting on her couch, "Jareth?"

"I see your face wasn't permanently damaged," was all he said as he flipped his book back to where he left off.

"Is there a reason you are in my house?" she asked while she booted the computer up and put some music on.

Jareth inspected her a bit while pretending to ignore her and read the book. She didn't have any new bruises, but he still wanted to know where the first ones came from. "I wanted to know who hurt you."

"Bullshit, that's not the reason you are here. Don't lie to me and I won't lie to you, agreed?"

With a nod Jareth agreed and told Kiara the truth, "Tia won't come here."

"You're hiding from Tia?"

Jareth glared at Kiara for a minute before returning to the book, "I'm not hiding; she is not a bad looking princess, but she does talk too much."

Kiara tried to hide her giggling and she went to get dressed. From her bedroom she called out to Jareth, "Wait a second, she talks too much and so you came here to hide. I thought you get annoyed at me because I keep trying to talk to you?"

When Kiara came back into the room Jareth answered her, "Your conversation is slightly more interesting than her babble about nonsense." Kiara nodded still giggling to herself.

"Come on into the kitchen and we'll continue the slightly interesting conversation while I make some chocolate chip pancakes."

A small smile crept onto Jareth's face, he loved chocolate but it was hard to get in the underground. "Where did you get the chocolate from?"

"The store."

"Aboveground?" Kiara nodded. Jareth started to get slightly angry again but then let it go, "You didn't tell me you were going aboveground. I want you to stay down here while there are other fae here. I need to make sure I stay strong."

"Huh? But you don't have to worry about that anymore. I thought I had to actually leave you or go aboveground for a couple weeks for anything to start going wrong."

"I am not completely sure how it works, all we know are from legends and they all say something a bit different. Just stay down here until this is all settled," Jareth said in his demanding tone. Kiara nodded as she mixed the pancake batter. Jareth continued to look over her bruises and decided to try and ask about them again. He was hoping that he wasn't sounding like he actually cared about her. "Now it is your turn to tell the truth, who did that to you? It does not look good on me if I allow anyone to come and hurt my subjects; that's my job."

"You are so full of shit sometimes. You never really hurt anyone; I'll never understand why everyone is so afraid of you. The worst thing I've ever heard is that you kick your goblins into the bog, which I used to think was horrible until I found out that it doesn't really hurt them."

"I could do more than that; I have sent the cleaners after that stupid dwarf Hogwart," Jareth said trying to make himself look more cruel.

"You would have never let it get to him and you know it; underneath you are a big pussycat aren't you?" Kiara said teasingly as she went over and messed around with his hair.

"Stop it immediately," Jareth yelled, "You are purposely trying to distract me to avoid answering my question."

"Yeah."

"Answer it."

"I can't tell you," Kiara finally answered and tried to focus more on cooking and avoiding Jareth's angry gaze.

"Why not? Was it that other fairy?"

Kiara laughed remembering how nice Gannon was the night before, "No, it wasn't Gannon I promise. It doesn't matter anyway; I doubt it will happen again. We understand each other now."

Jareth continued to glare until Kiara served him breakfast. He thought for awhile as he ate trying to see if anything she felt stood out in his mind. He knew she felt happy when he mentioned Gannon and slightly annoyed when he talked about Tia. Maybe he could bring up someone else and see what she felt. He inwardly sighed as he thought some more. He really hated caring about this girl and didn't know why he did other than to save his own ass, however it was nicer talking to her than to Tia or the goblins. "Is that other dwarf still in my kingdom?" he asked trying to sound annoyed.

Kiara looked up confused for a second, "Rubina? Yeah she is staying with Hoggle. They rarely ever come out though."

"I hope not many more will come for a visit."

"I would have thought you would have wanted some fae around for a change," Kiara said in between bites. Jareth looked at her curiously and she continued, "I remember before when we were in my apartment aboveground that you said that no fae can really stand the labyrinth. I thought it would get kind of lonely; I know I haven't been a fairy very long but I already wish that there were more around so that I could be with them. I guess I would even like a human since I still feel like one."

"I prefer the goblins to most other creatures, they are simple creatures."

Kiara nodded, "Yeah, I guess their lives do seem a lot less complicated. Are you expecting anyone else to come?"

Jareth shrugged slightly, "I really doubted anyone would have, but then again I knew that some people would be interested to see if I really regained my own power."

"Like Kenisha and Tia?" Jareth nodded. "I like Kenisha."

"But not Tia?" Jareth asked. He tried to get a sense for Kiara's feelings about Tia even though he was sure that she was not strong enough to inflict any damage on her; however her feelings weren't strong enough to sense anything important.

Kiara tried to think of a way to avoid fully answering the question, "I think that she wouldn't be like Vivian and try to kill me just to hurt you, but I don't really trust her."

"She might be staying for quite awhile, but if Broderick stays much longer I might get annoyed enough to accidentally destroy everything in his room," Jareth said as he thought more about if he was going to ask Tia to stay with him. He was immediately brought out of his thoughts by Kiara's sudden anger.

"Don't do that, the goblins would have a terrible time cleaning it up," Kiara answered with a small smile. Her face didn't betray her angry feelings at all. At first Jareth thought that she was just upset again because he was saying something bad about a family member, which he was starting to realize was a sensitive subject for her.

"What do you think about Broderick?" he asked and immediately got another immense wave of anger in response.

Kiara's expression still stayed completely neutral as she answered, "No comment." Jareth got out of his chair so fast that it fell right over. His eyes blazed with anger so fierce that Kiara thought he was actually going to hurt her, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. Jareth?"


	8. Angry Jareth

**A/N Own Nothing. Thanks to Notwritten for being my loyal reviewer and phantom for betaing. Is anyone else enjoying? I don't have any votes yet on choking Tia with a perfume bottle.**

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Chapter 8 – Angry Jareth

Thunder could be heard in the distance; Kiara couldn't help but wonder if it was Jareth's doing and if he was losing control of his own magic. Jareth looked at the cowering girl and made himself speak as calmly as possible, "Why didn't you tell me that Broderick did that to you?"

"I couldn't and please don't let him know that you know. How did you know anyway?" Kiara asked as she pushed herself further into a corner. She wasn't sure what would happen if Jareth lost control.

"Why not? I could easily banish him from ever coming into the labyrinth again."

"No!" Kiara yelled as she stood up, "Please Jareth just pretend it never happened, for me." Jareth stood paralyzed for a second as Kiara pleaded with him to forget about it. He was still angry, but sat down to finish eating. Kiara hoped that meant that he wouldn't say anything and went back to her seat across from him. The storm continued and Jareth ended up spending the rest of the day in Kiara's house keeping a watchful eye on her.

Kiara was started to get annoyed at Jareth around dinner time. She made them both dinner and they sat at the table in complete silence. Jareth had not spoken since their conversation that morning. He spent the entire day reading in whatever room she happened to be cleaning in. On the bright side she got a lot done since she felt awkward anytime she wasn't keeping herself busy. "Won't Tia be missing you and isn't it rude to stay out all day when you have guests?"

Jareth looked straight at her with a very blank look, he had spent the whole day trying to keep his temper from snapping and it had taken a lot out of him. "Even with guests I am king and have important matters to attend to."

"Should I be flattered? You just called spending the day with me an important matter, coming from you that's a huge compliment," Kiara said jokingly, however Jareth barely responded to it. "You are acting really weird, I don't like it."

"You requested that I do not confront Broderick for harming you and until I am sure I can control myself around him I will stay here."

Kiara was genuinely touched that he really was going to do what she asked; he made it known to her several times since she met him that he was king and it was always his way, this was not normal for him. "Thank you," she said with a sincere smile.

Jareth didn't respond and kept his eyes on his food while he ate. He knew she was really happy with him and he liked that feeling while at the same time hating feeling at all. While he ate he decided that he wanted to go back to the castle that night and bring Kiara with him where he could keep an eye on her. He knew that he couldn't watch her all the time especially since she learned to block his crystal balls from seeing her, but she would be close by.

As soon as they were done the two flew towards the castle, Jareth in his owl form and Kiara used her fairy wings. Kiara hadn't felt the desire to change into a hawk to travel since she grew her own wings. Tia was waiting for Jareth when they arrived and immediately hooked onto him pulling him into the library to tell him about everything she heard that day. Kiara wasn't in the castle for two minutes and she found herself completely alone, almost.

"Well look there is just the fairy I was looking for," Broderick said as he came out of the shadows, "Jareth has been completely inaccessible today, I hope you weren't keeping him away from his kingly duties."

Kiara glared at the fae, "I didn't do anything; Jareth came to visit me and had some aboveground cooking, he likes it."

"Good, now come with me little fairy; I wish to tell you the rest of my plan so that you can start carrying it out."

Kiara tried not to let herself feel any fear around this man. She just kept telling herself over and over that she was in the castle and any goblin would hear her if she called for them. With a small nod to herself she followed Broderick up the stairs into his chambers, "So what do you want me to do?"

Broderick picked up the moonstone and held in between his fingers so that Kiara could see it, "While I was King of the Underworld I learned a lot from the many dead souls that lived there, one of which was the creator of this moonstone. I know a lot more than legends tell." Kiara began to get slightly nervous as he kept talking, "So my plan is this: I want you to leave Jareth."

"What? I can't leave Jareth, he will die," Kiara got close to Broderick and tried once again to get the moonstone from him but was not fast enough.

"No," Broderick continued, "I know you won't do what I tell you if he was going to die anyway. No, you will leave Jareth and return to the aboveground until Jareth hands the kingdom over to me and then if you wish you can come back to him. I am sure that he will accept you back to save his own life."

Kiara shook her head, "Are you incredibly stupid? That won't work; Vivian is next in line for the throne. Won't she get it if Jareth gives it up?" A quick wave of the hand and Kiara found herself smacked to the floor again, "This is really starting to get annoying, you need a new trick."

"You are a stupid girl, if Jareth dies without giving me the throne then yes Vivian will take over; however if Jareth gives me the throne then it will be mine. Either way will work for me." Kiara raised her eyebrows in confusion and Broderick was happy to explain as he roughly pulled the girl up by her wing, "I never met Vivian until very recently. She is an absolutely stunning woman, don't you think?"

Understanding slowly sunk in to Kiara's mind as she realized that there was no way out of this, "You and Vivian are together?" Broderick just smiled his evil smile and he looked out through the window at the labyrinth.

"All of this will be mine soon, Jareth will have to give in or die."

"Once I've done what you asked and you have the labyrinth will you give me back the moonstone and leave me and Jareth alone?" Kiara asked. Broderick thought it over for a minute and slowly nodded. "One more problem, how long do I have to stay above ground? It took twenty years for Jareth to be near death last time and I will age like a human up there."

"This time it will be much quicker, one week at most I would suspect. You can't just leave, you have to actually reject him first and then leave. This is not a normal bond, the magic of the moonstone will work very quickly and I will have this kingdom."

Kiara took a deep breath and considered her options. Jareth would die if Broderick destroyed the moonstone, but if she left him then he would have a chance to live. She started wondering if Jareth would even want to live without the labyrinth. Suddenly she didn't know what she was going to do; this same thing could happen again and again as long as she had the moonstone, anyone could use her to hurt Jareth. She sighed realizing that he was right to keep it a secret. "How do I know if the moonstone can even be destroyed?"

Broderick grabbed her wing again and pulled her close, "Do you really want to take that risk?" Kiara shook her head and slowly walked out the door. She knew that she had a new bruise on her face and that her wing was sticking out more than usual, but she had to get this over with. Right then Jareth would still be with Tia in the library and she didn't want to do it in front of someone else although she was positive that Broderick would be watching. She wasn't even sure how to reject him; did she need to say something special? She hoped that she would figure it out when the time came.


	9. Leaving

A/N Own Nothing, Love to Phantom for not only betaing but being a loyal reviewer. Thanks to notwritten for staying with me in all my stories.

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Chapter 9 - Leaving

Kiara sat in the corner of the library playing the part of the loyal servant, she kept her head down and mouth shut and couldn't help but notice the worried glances that she was getting from Jareth. After worrying for about an hour she slowly drifted off to sleep leaning against a bookshelf, it was almost midnight when Jareth woke her up and she saw that Tia was gone. She glanced into the hallway and saw Broderick staring at her from the shadows.

"You were hit again," Jareth said trying not to get angry and scare her. She quickly stood up and stared at Jareth. She had to hurry up and do this while she still had the nerve.

"Jareth, I am leaving," Kiara started. She really had no clue what she was going to say, but the words started tumbling out of her mouth, "I am done with being your slave, I am done with putting up with you using me and I am done being your wife." She started shaking and tears came down her cheeks in full streams. She kept taking deep breaths and looked away from his eyes. If she kept looking at him then she would break and so would the moonstone.

Jareth's anger was replaced by something he knew all too well and hated more than anything; including when Kiara made him feel guilty. He felt his heart break, the heart he claimed that he didn't have. "Kiara, don't do this; the labyrinth will go back to dying. What will make you stay?" Jareth asked in a low whisper. He didn't like showing this side of him, but he was just as upset about Kiara not wanting to be with him anymore as he was the fact that this would mean that he would die.

Kiara kept her eyes on Jareth's chest refusing to look up, "Nothing."

"If this is because of Broderick…," Jareth began before being interrupted.

"This is because of you."

"Why don't you wait and make this decision in the morning, apparently you have just been through something and need some time to think. I am not the one that hurt you!" Jareth yelled at Kiara. He was passed being upset and now back to his normal angry self.

"You have hurt me many times and I don't mean physically, I am leaving tonight."

"Don't say it," Jareth begged, more than almost anything he did not want to hear those words again.

The words just came to her, Kiara had never heard them before and she didn't know why she was even saying them since to her it didn't seem to make any sense. She looked straight into his eyes and said, "You have no power over me." She barely had time to think of why she said that when the room began to blur, the last thing she saw in the labyrinth was the Goblin King's face full of more sadness than she thought was possible. Before she left she managed to create a crystal ball to take with her with the power to show her what was going on inside of the labyrinth so that she would know when to return.

Jareth knelt down on the floor staring at the empty space where Kiara was standing. He didn't understand what had just happened, he felt her overwhelming sadness when she was telling him that she didn't want to be with him. He knew that they fought a lot and that he often made her angry, but he never thought that she would leave him. He took it for granted that she would always forgive him and at the very least put the labyrinth ahead of herself. He almost felt the sting of tears behind his eyes but put them away and focused on blowing up his library. As soon as he did he regretted it, the magic already started leaving him and soon he would be back to being bedridden. He went to his chambers and laid on his bed waiting for sleep or death to take him.

Kiara appeared in the middle of an empty street in her human form. It took her a few minutes to get her bearings and she found her way to a motel to spend the next week. She was glad that she still had Jareth's credit card and hoped that he wouldn't mind her using it. Shortly after Kiara moved to the underground permanently Jareth gave it to her and told her that he liked to vacation in the aboveground and actually owned a business that he hired someone else to run. She paid for the motel and went to her room to cry herself to sleep.

The next morning Jareth woke up feeling absolutely terrible. Tia walked into his bedroom and started her normal chatter while she tried to wake him up, "What is the matter with you? I thought you were an early riser?"

"I'm ill, go away," he muttered and rolled over to face away from her.

"Oh, I can take care of you. I'll go have the goblins make you something for breakfast," she said as she headed towards the kitchen.

Jareth groaned and started getting out of bed. He was just barely finished getting dressed when his brother walked in with a large smile, "Jareth, how are you today? It is really a nice day in the labyrinth."

"Hmm, fine, go away."

"No playful arguments or anything. Tia said you were unwell, but this must be a plague," Broderick smiled and practically skipped around the room. He sat down on one of Jareth's chairs and started swinging the moonstone around making sure Jareth could see it.

"Where did you get that?" Jareth asked.

"I found it; I thought I might hang onto it in case I ever need it, since you won't need it with your loophole spells. You must tell me how you did that by the way."

"Maybe, give it to me."

"I don't think I will. I think I will keep it. So since you are ill I will get out of your hair, I definitely don't want to catch it," Broderick said as he left Jareth's room.

Jareth sat on his bed and started talking to himself, "What am I going to do about this?" He decided that he needed to talk to Kiara again and get to the bottom of this. With the small amount of power he had Jareth made his way to Kiara's cottage and found her laptop. He wasn't sure if it would be able to contact her, but he turned it on and watched it hoping for something to happen.

Kiara spent the first few days aboveground lying in bed, barely moving. She almost considered killing herself, but then remembered she had to stay alive to save Jareth in the end. She looked into her crystal ball and asked it to show her Hoggle's house. The image slowly formed and she could see that the yard was completely dried up and Hoggle was by himself trying to clear out the dead plants.

Next she asked to see Jareth, she hoped that he would be talking to Broderick and getting this whole thing sorted out, but she saw him sitting in her cottage staring at her laptop. He looked like he barely moved either. Immediately she got out of bed and headed towards the nearest electronics store and bought another laptop with Jareth's credit card. She went back to the hotel and set up the connection and found that her instant messenger was open on her computer in the labyrinth.

Not sure if she was doing the right thing she began to type to him, "Jareth, why are you in my cottage. Get back to the castle and rest while you can."

Jareth was half asleep when he heard the ding of the computer and he cracked open his eyes to see the little message box pop up. He smirked thankful that he was such a quick learner and that she actually tried to teach him how to use this machine. "Kiara, please come back. Look I even said please."

"No, I am done trying to be what you want me to be," Kiara typed and logged off. She felt worse than she did before and went back to lying on the bed trying not to think. It didn't last long and soon she was back to her old habits; the white lines that were on her arms and chest were now all dripping with her blood. It wasn't enough to be life threatening, but it was enough to make her feel something else.

The computer was now sitting in a million pieces all over the cottage. Jareth used the last of his magic to make it explode. He knew that very soon his body would start to give out on him so he headed back to the castle to live out the rest of his days. In the throne room he found Broderick sitting on his throne still playing with the moonstone.


	10. Dying Again

Chapter 10 – Dying Again

"Hello Jareth, I see that the labyrinth is dying again. I guess your spells didn't work," Broderick said with large smirk.

"Broderick, did you say anything to Kiara to make her leave the labyrinth?" Jareth asked using all of his willpower to keep himself standing.

"Who is Kiara?"

"My fairy," he answered getting annoyed already with his brother.

Broderick smirked, "Oh, so your little servant girl ran away. I certainly didn't speak to her, really Jareth I thought you knew me better than that. Why do you care anyway, the underground is full of fairies. I am sure you can find a much better behaved one."

Jareth glared at his brother and wondered if he was telling the truth. "Give me the moonstone. It looks like I will need it after all."

"I'll make you a deal; I will give you the moonstone if you give me the labyrinth."

"What? You can't be serious," Jareth looked at him in disbelief. He thought he knew his brother well, but he never expected him to sink to this level.

With a laugh Broderick held the moonstone out just out of Jareth's reach. "Do you want to die or will you give me the labyrinth?"

"I guess I'll die," Jareth said and turned to leave the room. He soon found himself back at Kiara's cottage. It was the only place he felt he could die in peace. His brother would most likely leave him alone in there and Tia would never go into a servant's home. He needed to see Kiara again and talk to her face to face. He debated trying the mirror, but he was sure that it wouldn't work the other way around.

Kiara continued to watch over Jareth hoping that he would change his mind so that she could go back to him without Broderick destroying the moonstone. The time passed surprisingly quickly and she saw that like herself Jareth hadn't eaten anything in at least two days. She wasn't eating because she was so depressed that she didn't bother getting out of bed. Jareth didn't eat because he physically couldn't get off of the couch.

Kiara knew she had to do something before it was too late. "Hoggle, Didymus, Rabz, any available goblins," she called into the vanity mirror.

Hoggle appeared first, "Girlie, what is going on around here and why are you aboveground?" Kiara turned around to see her room full of goblins that were actually being quiet and ready to hear what she called them up for.

"Listen guys, Broderick stole the moonstone from me and now he is waiting for Jareth to either die or give him the labyrinth," Kiara explained.

"That's why he took the moonstone?" Hoggle asked and nodded to himself. He should have suspected that something big would have gone wrong.

Kiara nodded, "He will destroy it if I enter the labyrinth before he gets control. I need you guys to help steal it back from him."

"His magic is really powerful," one of the goblins said and the rest agreed with him.

"Do you really want the next rulers of the labyrinth to be Queen Vivian and King Broderick? They will banish all of the goblins and I doubt the rest of you will enjoy whatever they will do with you."

Didymus finally spoke up, "My lady, you are still our queen and we will do as you command. We will fight to death to do your bidding." Hoggle looked scared to death, but the goblins started getting excited to have a little fun. They all headed back through the mirror and Kiara watched in her crystal ball as she waited for the goblins to get a hold of the stone. She just hoped that none of those goblins were the spies.

The goblins came through for her and started creating chaos in the throne room. They jumped all around their almost new king spilling ale and who knows what else all over him. One finally got the chance and easily snatched the stone away. Broderick was just about to smack the goblin into the wall when Kiara quickly sent herself into the labyrinth with a shield around her. She was actually surprised when it worked, she wasn't very good at shields and she very rarely ever teleported where she meant to. She held on tightly to the moonstone and ran towards her cottage with Broderick following.

A few seconds of running and Kiara took off into the air. Her wing was hurt from Broderick pulling at it, but it would fly. Broderick changed into a falcon, but was nowhere near as fast as a fairy. Kiara made it back to the cottage and sat down right next to Jareth.

"Kiara?" Jareth mumbled. She could see that he was barely hanging on, "I need to talk to you."

"I know, but first I need your help," Kiara said and she tried to push magic into Jareth as quickly as possible." She just finished when Broderick blew up the front door.

Jareth shook his head trying to clear it and looked at his brother. He could feel the pure fear coming from Kiara as she clutched something tightly in her hands. "Would someone like to tell me what is going on?"

Broderick waved his hand throwing Jareth into the wall and easily picked up Kiara by the shoulders. "Listen fairy, this wasn't the deal now give that stone back." Jareth tried to focus his eyes onto what was happening, but was starting to get really dizzy. He stood up and held his hand against the wall to support him.

Kiara looked at Jareth hoping that he would be able to help her, but it looked like she was on her own. "No, the moonstone is mine, you said that Jareth would live. If I didn't give him magic right then he probably would be dead already."

The next thing Kiara knew is that she was thrown at the wall and landed next to Jareth; her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving. Jareth was able to see that clearly and this time he let his temper snap. He was suddenly filled with extra energy and the skies turned completely black. "That is my fairy you just hurt, now you are going to get it." Jareth sent a powerful beam of magic at his brother which threw him back breaking all of the furniture he landed on.

Broderick got up laughing, "Go on big brother and keep hitting me with magic. Soon you will have nothing left and this kingdom will be mine."

Jareth realized he was right and stopped, "Fine then, I am banishing you from my labyrinth. Now disappear." He twitched his hand and last bit of magic that Kiara gave him was gone.

Broderick was still laughing as his body disappeared from the labyrinth, "As soon as you die Jareth this land will belong to me and Vivian." The laughter echoed in the cottage a few seconds after the image was gone.

Kiara was coming back around as Jareth collapsed on the floor. He was struggling to stay awake and felt around for Kiara's hand. She held onto it and started crying once again, "Jareth I am so sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen."

"Kiara, I didn't want you to leave," Jareth said between tortured breaths, "I don't…"

"I know, I know; you don't hate me," Kiara said with a small laugh, "Jareth, take me back as your queen. I want to come home to the labyrinth."

Jareth smirked a little bit as he fell back into Kiara's arms, "Even as my servant girl?"

Kiara almost laughed hearing Jareth trying to tease her. It was the Jareth that she loved to be around, "I'll be a good servant girl this time. Tell me how to undo this."

"I don't know. It's too late."


	11. Secret's Out

**A/N Own Nothing. Thanks to my beta for being awesome. Notwritten, I think I am writing this story just for you. Thanks for the reviews and enjoy.**

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Chapter 11 – Secret's Out

Kiara held onto Jareth as she tried to at least explain before it was too late for that as well, "It was Broderick, he caused the whole thing. He stole the moonstone from me and threatened to destroy it if I didn't help him get control of the labyrinth. He said that you would give it to him and I could come back and save you. I didn't mean for it to go so far."

Jareth's smirked turned into a smile, "I thought…" He was starting to have trouble talking now and couldn't finish his sentence.

Kiara started to panic. She needed to save Jareth but no words came to her like they did before. She held onto the moonstone and wished as hard as she could that it would somehow save him, "Jareth, I am your wife and your queen and you will listen to me. Do not die on me." The moonstone started glowing softly and brightened every second. Kiara had to hide her eyes from the glow and Jareth barely noticed that he was able to lift his hand to shield his eyes.

"I told you to control that thing or hide it better," Jareth said in his normal harsh tones.

"Jareth! Are you alright again?"

He slowly sat up and tried moving his arms around. He was able to feel his magic again and he was actually happy to feel Kiara's emotions again; his mind felt a little empty without them the past week. "I think I am; now I refuse to go through this again. You will outlive me and I will live to a normal old fae age. Don't leave me again." Kiara looked up into his eyes as he said the last line. He was talking like a king again until he told her not to leave him, that part made him sound like a sad, lonely man.

"I am so sorry for all the things I said. I really like being with you, you are one of my best friends even if you can't stand me most of the time. I don't really mind playing your servant, except when Tia plays dress up with me," Kiara said with a smile.

"All of this things you said were true though, weren't they?"

Kiara opened her mouth to tell him that he was wrong, but then realized that the reason the words came so easily is that they all were how she often felt. "Yes, but I still love being in the labyrinth."

Jareth looked at the small fairy and noticed that she was actually wearing a tank top instead of her long sleeve shirts. He lightly touched the new cuts and felt her anxiety grow. He shook his head at her, "Kiara you do annoy me, but I don't hate it."

Kiara pulled her arm away and leaned against him. She got a bigger surprise when he actually put his arm around her. "Why do you always say it like that? You don't hate me. Well does that mean you do like me or you just tolerate me?" she asked.

"I'll never tell you," Jareth answered as he stood up. "You can clean this room up tomorrow. For now you will stay in the castle."

"Excuse me your royal bastard, you and your brother created all of this mess so you can wave your wand and clean it up for me." The two of them bickered back and forth the entire way to the castle both of them loving every second of it. The moonstone shined brightly around Kiara's neck and a small crystal bubble briefly appeared and disappeared around it.

When they arrived back at the castle it was as if none of the past few days had happened, the labyrinth was already full of life again and the king and queen were arguing away. "You have to teach me how to breathe underwater, I want to see Kenisha's kingdom."

Jareth rolled his eyes as they entered the throne room, "You are so terrible at controlling your magic, I know you will lose control about half way down and then you won't be able to breathe."

"Well then come with me and help me," Kiara said. She was about to argue some more when she heard Tia's voice.

"I thought you said that your fairy was well behaved?" Jareth looked over at Tia sitting in the window. "Why does she have the moonstone?"

Even though he knew he would have to tell everyone someday, Jareth was not ready to do this right now. He glanced at Kiara and answered, "The fairy is the real reason I was able to restore my power. She is the Goblin Queen."

Tia walked over to Jareth trying to look as sad as possible, "But I thought that we were getting along so well."

"I have decided that I would like you to stay for awhile longer, Kiara is my queen but I am not interested in being with her." Kiara knew she felt the same about Jareth or at least she thought she did, but it still really hurt her for him to say it.

Tia was happy to be Jareth's consort for now and Kiara took Gannon away for the two of them to be alone. She wasn't sure what to think or feel, but right then Gannon was making her feel much better.

"You just cheated on your husband," Gannon said teasingly as they lied in her bed.

Kiara playfully smacked him and turned to face the window, "I think that's one reason I am so confused about everything. I am married and sometimes I think Jareth has feelings for me, but he always says he doesn't."

"Jareth doesn't have feelings, he is a fae. They are all the same, heartless," Gannon responded as he put her arm around her. "Anyway, don't worry we can still just have fun."

"He does have feelings and so do the rest of them. When I left Jareth, I think I really broke his heart and I think he really thought I hated him."

"He might have been upset because he was going to die, but that's as far as they go," Gannon said giving her a kiss on the back of her head. "Go to sleep, you had a very long day I am sure." He turned around and within minutes was lightly snoring. Kiara was restless and for the next hour and tried to get herself comfortable. The clock said it was two in the morning, but she decided to get out of bed anyway. She jumped out the window in her nightshirt and flew a few laps around the castle hoping it would tire her out. On the second lap she saw Jareth sitting on his balcony and landed next to him.

"Can't sleep either?"

"Still can't land?" Jareth asked with a small smirk.

Kiara put on a fake pout, "I'm getting better. You can't tell me that your first time changing into an owl that you did everything perfect."

"Of course I did."

"You are seriously telling me that you never made a mistake with magic or let it get out of control? No lies."

Jareth didn't answer for a minute and leaned against the wall, "The bog."

"You created it by accident?" Kiara asked as she laughed at him, "If I was your mother I would have been pissed."

Jareth actually let out a small laugh and nodded, "Yes she was."

Kiara leaned over the railing and looked down, she found that she no longer had the slightest fear of heights. She grew nervous as she thought of something else she wanted to ask Jareth, "Maybe you should have given Tia the moonstone. I mean, she is going to be your consort anyway. I guess you made the wrong decision before."

"Then you would be banished to live aboveground and there would be no one to cook aboveground food for me," Jareth replied.

"Oh I see, that's the only reason you want me around," Kiara said sarcastically. She hoped that he wouldn't realize that she did actually think that.

"Also the slightly more interesting conversation." That comment made Kiara laugh.

"I forgot about that," Kiara thought some more as the two stood next to each other looking out into their kingdom. "I'm really sorry if I hurt you when I left."

Jareth started to get uncomfortable at the turn of the conversation, "Well dying isn't exactly a pleasurable experience."

"You know that's not what I meant," Kiara said and Jareth just slightly nodded and looked away. "So when are we visiting Lady Kenisha?" Jareth smirked and turned back towards Kiara. He ignored her question completely and headed into his bedroom. Kiara stayed on the balcony for a few more minutes before flying back to her own window. No matter what Gannon said she knew that he was wrong, Jareth and the rest of the fae did have feelings. They were just picky about who saw them.


	12. Ring Shopping

Chapter 12 – Ring Shopping

Tia decided that she and Gannon would return home for a few days to pack everything she would need to stay in the labyrinth longer. She was waiting for Jareth to say goodbye when she got curious of the moonstone. "Little fairy, can I see the moonstone?"

Kiara put her hand over it protectively, "No."

"You don't have to take it off; I just want to take a good look at it. I am sure that I have some lovely dresses to go with it." Kiara almost refused again, but Jareth came into the room and she was sure that Tia wouldn't try anything in front of him. She nodded and Tia reached her hand out to touch it and was shocked, literally. She screamed out in pain and pulled her hand back, "The stone zapped me!" Jareth and Kiara looked at the stone curiously and he attempted to touch it, but nothing happened. Tia ordered Gannon to try and the stone did not hurt him either.

Jareth whispered in Kiara's ear, "It seems to know who you trust." Kiara's eyes widened and she tried to figure out if she accidentally put a protection spell on the stone.

"Jareth I am leaving," Tia announced in an angry tone, which made her sound like a bratty child. She glared at Kiara as she pulled Jareth in close for a long kiss. Kiara looked away and tried not to be jealous, but wasn't at all successful. She didn't know why she was really jealous, but she couldn't stand to watch. Jareth felt it and inwardly laughed until he saw Gannon kiss her. The jealousy left Kiara and Jareth found himself being jealous instead.

The two watched as Gannon held Tia and flew away until they could no longer see them anymore. Kiara sighed wondering what Hoggle was up to, Rubina had left a few days before and with all that had been going on she really hadn't had time to talk to him. With a quick smile to Jareth she jumped out the window and flew down towards Hoggle's house.

Kiara knocked on Hoggle's door and went in after hearing him yell, she found him sitting at his table with all of his jewels spread out. She got closer and saw that he was attempting to make something, "What are you making?"

"Nothing," he said quickly and pushed his jewels aside. Kiara was quick enough to grab what he was working on and saw that it was a small ring with a plastic red gem.

"Aww Hoggle, are you making a ring for Rubina?" Kiara asked as she inspected it closer. "Are you going to propose?"

"Thems mine," Hoggle cried as he tried to reach up and grab the ring back. Kiara laughed as she let him take it back. Kiara watched him work on it a little longer before coming up with a great idea.

"Hoggle, how about we go aboveground and pick out a really nice ring, one made from real stones and not plastic ones."

Hoggle looked at Kiara like she was crazy, "Why not, I am sure that dwarves pop into aboveground stores every day." Kiara bit her lip and tried to think of a way around that.

"Jareth can change you into your human form," Kiara said and she grabbed Hoggle by the arm. He started to protest, but soon he found himself transported into the castle. The only problem was it wasn't the room that Kiara was aiming for; they were transported into the Escher room. "Oops, do you know your way around here?"

"Now why did you go and do that when we could have walked? No, I have no idea how to get out of here." Hoggle started grumbling and walking through random doors trying to find his way. Kiara followed not wanting to get separated. She tried calling Jareth's name every few minutes, but with no luck. An hour later and they were still lost in the same room.

"This place is nuts, seriously who builds a room like this?" Kiara asked as the two sat down for a minute.

"My father built it," Jareth's voice came from above. The two looked up and watched him drop down to them. "Why are you in here with him?"

Kiara looked down for a minute embarrassed, "I tried teleporting and ended up in the wrong place. I want to take Hoggle aboveground with me shopping and needed your help to change him into a human."

"Why would you want to take him with you?" Jareth asked as he started heading out of the room. The other two quickly chased after him, they did not want to get lost again.

"We are going shopping for an engagement ring for Hoggle to give to Rubina," Kiara answered. She heard Hoggle groan, but ignored him, "Please Jareth, will you do the spell for me?"

Jareth started to say no and found that he didn't want to disappoint her; she looked so happy right then. "Fine, but only because I need you to get more aboveground food to cook for me." Kiara smiled knowing that he was making an excuse to be nice to her. Jareth blew a crystal at them and they were both teleported aboveground.

Kiara looked down and saw that she was her normal human self again. Jareth had transported them into the middle of a mall, but no one seemed to notice their sudden appearance. She looked around for Hoggle, but she didn't have a clue what he looked like. She stayed put, but kept turning around and calling out his name. Soon she heard her own name and turned to see a man in his late thirties coming towards her. He was about average height, very muscular, with dark brown hair that looked like it was just starting to get a few stray gray hairs. He was walking towards Kiara not noticing all of the women that were checking him out.

"Wow, this is what you would have looked like if you grew up as a human?" Kiara asked as she stared at him in amazement.

"I guess," he answered grumpily. Kiara tried not to laugh at his unhappiness at being around so many people. She pulled him into the closest jewelry store and the two of them began their search. It took awhile for Hoggle to take in all the jewels especially since he would have loved to have added most of them to his own collection. At the third store he finally found the perfect one for Rubina; the center was a round diamond with two little rubies on either side. The band was a yellow gold with a star like design engraved into it. Kiara excitedly paid for the ring and the two headed out to do some other random bits of shopping while they were aboveground.

Before heading back to the underground Kiara decided to stop at a fast food restaurant for some dinner. Kiara got herself a burger, but Hoggle looked slightly disgusted at the food. "That's how I feel about most of the food that the goblins make," Kiara said as she laughed at Hoggle's expression.

"That's because you make the mistake of letting the goblins cook for you."

"Jareth seems to like their cooking. So when are you going to propose?" Kiara asked.

Hoggle shrugged slightly, "I thought I'd head down there sometime in the next couple of days and maybe ask her."

"Do you know what you are going to do?" Hoggle shook his head and leaned on his one arm as he tried to think of a way to propose. "Oh well, no matter what you do I am sure she will say yes and she will absolutely love the ring."

"I hope so," Hoggle replied and waited in silence for Kiara to finish eating. As soon as she was done the two tried to find a place where they wouldn't be seen and transported back down into the labyrinth. This time Kiara's aim landed them right outside of the Goblin City. They headed back to their respective houses and Kiara got a surprise when she entered hers.


	13. Traveling to the Underworld

Chapter 13 – Traveling to the Underworld

"Jareth? You can't just make yourself comfortable in my house whenever you please. Anyway Tia is not here so why are you?" Kiara asked.

Jareth stood up from the couch with his trademark smirk on his face, "You were gone quite a long time and I got bored. I came to let you know that I was traveling to the Underworld tomorrow and if you promise not to make a nuisance of yourself then I will allow you to join me."

The Underworld sounded like a scary but interesting place. Kiara thought about it for a minute while she unpacked her shopping bags. Did she really want to see the place that she would be spending eternity? She got the impression that fae would prefer to visit the labyrinth than the Underworld which says a lot, but Kiara wasn't really sure why they didn't like it so much.

"Sure, I guess since I am queen and all I should know a little bit about the other kingdoms in the underground. What's it like there?"

Jareth's smirk faded and he turned completely serious, "The Underworld is one place where is doesn't matter who you were in life, a high fae or a lowly goblin, everyone ends up being exactly the same. I have only visited it a few times before, but I stayed away from where the souls live. I don't want to know what will happen." Kiara nodded, she now understood why the fae didn't want to visit. They all thought they were gifts from the gods or something, but to one day be reduced to nothing probably was a very scary concept.

"Alright, well I will see you tomorrow morning then," Kiara said as she waited for Jareth to leave. He didn't take the hint and made himself more comfortable on her living room couch. "Don't you have your own bedroom and your own library to be comfortable and read your books in?"

"Yes, but it is much quieter here, there are no goblins, no fieries and I know that once you stop asking me questions that you will go to sleep and I will be able to be alone in peace," Jareth answered.

"How often do you come here that I don't know about?" Kiara asked. Jareth only shrugged knowing that he came more often than he would like to admit and not just for the peace and quiet. Occasionally he would show up to see if she was awake because he was lonely or bored, however every time he did that she was always asleep and he couldn't bear to wake her. "Well just as long as you don't come into my bedroom to see me naked or anything like that, "she said jokingly and went to get some sleep. It was really late in the underground and she knew that she that she would have to get up fairly early and she didn't know if Jareth wanted to transport or fly to the Underworld.

When Jareth walked into Kiara's bedroom the next morning he was surprised to see that she had clothing thrown all over the floor; she was usually a very neat person but today she was having a harder time than usual deciding what to wear. She picked out her first outfit without thinking and it was a dark grey shirt with jeans, but she worried about looking depressing in an already depressing place. Her second outfit was much brighter, but then she worried that if the Underworld was bleak and depressed that she would stand out. Her third outfit was a light brown turtleneck with dark jeans, but then she wondered if it was too casual. Every outfit had something wrong with it and it was driving her crazy, she was not usually this picky.

Jareth was slightly amused watching her pull more and more clothes out of her closet and trying to use magic on them to alter them. After a few minutes he started getting bored, his attention span was really not much more than a goblins, and he made a crystal that transformed what Kiara was currently wearing into a loose violet shirt that went down just past her hips and a pair of dark brown jeans. Kiara checked herself out for a minute and smiled at herself. Happy that her clothing dilemma was solved she headed out with Jareth to get ready to leave. He stopped and sat down at her table with an impatient look on his face.

"Let's go and get some breakfast made so that we can be on our way," he said.

Kiara tried not to smile at the Goblin King and turned to start making them both some eggs, "If you would spend more time in your castle instead of hanging around here then you would have already been fed, your majesty."

"More cooking, less talking," he answered as he picked up a book. Kiara smiled at him as she just started to realize how much he actually liked to read. She got a peak at the book and found out it was some type of murder mystery; she shook her head thinking that she would have never thought that would have been his genre of choice.

"Where do you get you get your books?" Jareth glanced at Kiara for only a second before returning to the book. "It doesn't look like someone in the underground wrote it; the author even has a last name and everything."

"From a bookstore, where most books come from," he answered.

"But how do you even understand whats going on? You barely knew what a computer was; you can't possibly understand all the forsenic science stuff that goes on in that book."

"No I don't, you don't understand everything about magic and yet you used to read many books about it didn't you."

Kiara nodded, "Alright you win this time." She finished cooking the eggs and put a plate in front of Jareth. She started to eat her own but soon started getting nervous about seeing the other kingdom, it made her begin to lose her appetite. She played with it for a little bit before finally pushing it towards Jareth to finish for her.

As soon as Jareth finished he got up and waited for Kiara outside. She cleaned up a few things before joining them and she watched as Jareth changed into his owl form. After a quick stretch of her wings Kiara was up in the air following Jareth. She almost fell behind a few times when something interesting would catch her eye; she debated on asking Jareth if they could stop a few times so that she could get a closer look at the waterfalls or the dragons cave. Three hours into the flight and Kiara just couldn't keep up anymore, she had never flown farther than from her cottage to the castle and she was absolutely exhausted. She landed and sat down hoping that Jareth would notice that she wasn't following anymore. It took a few minutes but he soon landed next to her and changed back into his fae form.

"You need more exercise if you are tired already," Jareth smirked teasingly. Kiara laid back on the ground and shot him a quick glare before closing her eyes.

"These wings are very new don't forget and this is the farthest I have ever flown, I am quite proud of myself." Kiara tried to stay awake, but she was so tired from all that flying that sleep overtook her and soon she was dreaming of dragons and unicorns.

Jareth smiled a real smile at the sleeping fairy and shook his head as he picked her up and started flying. He very rarely flew in any other form besides the owl because he thought it felt awkward, but there was no other way he was going to carry Kiara and he didn't want to wait for her to wake up. He was just starting to enter Alexander's kingdom when Kiara began to stir. The temperature was much colder in the Underworld and she shivered lightly as she opened her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked very confused why Jareth was holding her. She turned her head and looked down and saw a dark grey wasteland. There were a few dead and dried up trees scattered throughout the land, but mostly it was just nothing but grey sand. The wind picked up and if they would have been much lower to the ground then they would have gotten sand in their eyes and faces. "Is this the Underworld?"

Jareth looked down at Kiara and shook his head, "Not really. This is part of the same kingdom, but the Underworld is technically the part underneath the ground. We will reach the cave entrance shortly." Kiara nodded and snuggled closer into Jareth trying to keep warm, he tried his best to act like he didn't like it, but inside he was all smiles. The closer they got to the entrance the stronger the wind became and soon it was impossible to fly. Jareth set them down and the two walked while Jareth used his magic to shield them from the wind and cold.


	14. The Underworld

**A/N Own Nothing. All my love to notwritten and phantom**

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**Chapter 14 – The Underworld**

Finally they came to the entrance of a very large cave, Kiara looked in suddenly deeply afraid. She couldn't see a thing inside of it, there was nothing but darkness. It took all of her will power to follow Jareth and she couldn't resist hanging onto his arm while they walked. It was a long downward spiral into the cave and all the while drips of water, groans and other unrecognizable noises could be heard. Kiara was now second guessing her decision to come at all, in comparison the labyrinth was a paradise.

At the bottom of the spiral was a small river with a man wearing all black was standing guard at a bridge. Kiara wondered if this is where the ferryman myth came from, only instead of taking a boat across the river you actually just had to walk across a bridge. Jareth walked right past the man and headed across, but Kiara stopped for a second to look at him. He turned to her and the glow in his eyes scared her enough that she didn't want to hang around any longer. She latched back onto Jareth and resisted burying her head into his back. She heard him chuckle lightly, but did her best to ignore it.

"Jareth, how nice to see someone brave enough to venture into the Underworld," said a short dark haired fae. He walked over to meet the visitors and gestured for them to follow into a room along the side of a tunnel.

"I do not plan to venture much farther into the Underworld for many more centuries," Jareth replied with a small smirk. The other fae nodded once and sat down on a large gray chair. Kiara was right and the place was as depressing as she thought. She stopped listening to the conversation and tried to see if she could see anyone else walking around the area. Jareth noticed her curiosity and assumed that she wouldn't really be interested in normal fae business, "Kiara, why don't you go look around for a little while and I will fetch you when we are done." Kiara looked scared, but she did want to see more of the cave.

Alexander nodded and turned to the fairy, "Yes little fairy please have a look around, I promise you that nothing will harm you. All that live here are spirits of the deceased." That last comment did not make Kiara feel any better, but she slowly headed out of the room and down further into the tunnel.

The tunnel twisted and turned a few times before opening up into a large chamber where she saw souls coming through one door and going out one of three other doors. She walked over and tried to overhear what some of the elves working there were saying. Sadly she didn't learn anything interesting, at the door where the souls were entering was an elf looking up names in a large book and directing them to one of the other three doors. All of the souls looked like they weren't really there, no one was speaking and none of them had any expression on their faces.

Kiara walked through the middle door surprised that no one seemed to care. Inside was a large set of stairs that led into another large chamber where the souls seemed to be randomly walking back and forth or just sitting on the ground staring into nothingness. She was about to be done seeing any more when a soul approach her and actually looked into her eyes. The soul looked extremely sad, but then what soul would be happy in place like this?

The female soul lightly put her hand on Kiara's shoulder, but all she was able to feel was a cold wind where the woman's hand was. The woman smiled slightly and looked over to the other side of the room, without saying a word a male soul looked up and came over to see Kiara. The souls looked at each other and then back to Kiara.

"Hi," was all Kiara could think of to say. The woman was fairly young, probably younger than Kiara and no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't see what color her eyes or hair was. The souls were all a very blank blue gray color and slightly transparent.

"Hi," the woman responded, "You look so much like me." The man nodded and Kiara just shrugged in reply. "Kiara," the woman said lightly and looked at the man with a slightly hopeful expression on her face, "You are not dead."

"No, I'm not; I'm just visiting with the Goblin King." The man suddenly looked very displeased, but didn't say anything. Kiara noticed as she looked around her that many other souls were beginning to surround her and trying to touch her. Even though it made her think of a really bad horror movie it still scared her. The souls continued to put their hands through her as she backed away from the one who originally talked to her.

"Don't leave yet," the woman said, "We want to get to know you."

"Why," Kiara asked attempting to push the souls away, however her hand just went right through and had no effect other than making her even colder.

"Because I am your mother," the woman said with a smile, "Your father and I have been wondering about you for years."

Kiara's eyes widened in disbelief, although she often dreamed of meeting her parents this isn't exactly the way she always planned it. She backed away towards the door stuttering as she went, "I really have to go, Jareth is waiting." She turned as ran away as fast as she could watching some of the souls trying to grab her one last time as she passed.

Back up through the tunnels she ran trying to put as much distance between the deceased and herself. She wanted nothing more than to get out of this place and didn't care how it looked when she ran back into the room where Jareth and Alexander were still sitting and talking. She ran right to Jareth putting her arms around him and burying her head into his chest.

Jareth was surprised since he was very distracted he did not feel Kiara's scared emotions until she was in the room with him. He made himself looked disgusted and glanced up at Alexander who shrugged and said, "Nothing should have been able to hurt her in here. With the exception of the elves, nothing else could even touch her."

"No, sorry nothing hurt me. I just saw something," Kiara mumbled and backed away from Jareth.

"Yes, there are a lot of things down here that most are never prepared to see," Alexander answered. He gave Jareth a disappointed look and Jareth knew it was because he let this lowly fairy not only touch him, but speak as well.

"I think we are done here anyway, we will leave now," Jareth stood up. He turned away from Kiara and completely ignored her until they were far away from the cave entrance, "I told you not to make a nuisance of yourself."

Kiara kept her head down and mumbled, "Sorry." She kept her eyes down even as they took off and started flying. Jareth could feel how upset she was and was starting to feel guilty again no matter how much he tried to push it away. When they stopped for a break, Jareth decided to find out what it was that Kiara saw. Deep down Jareth thought Kiara was very brave to adventure through the caves at all since he knew that he would never willingly do it.

"I have yet to venture down into the tunnels, what was down there?" he asked.

Still keeping her eyes down Kiara began to tell Jareth what saw, "Their eyes were so blank like they weren't really there and they all kept trying to touch me but only one of them would speak." Jareth leaned against a tree and waited for Kiara to continue so she did, "It was my mother, which is what scared me the most I think."

Jareth stared at the fairy for a minute and smirked at her, he didn't understand how seeing a relative could be that scary at least not in that way. "Is your mother that unattractive that she would scare you away?"

Kiara shook her head and started to laugh at herself, she started seeing how ridiculous she was being about the whole situation. She should have taken advantage and found out more about her parents like she always wanted too, instead she ran away liked a complete idiot. "No, I look a bit like her, but I never met her before; at least I don't remember ever meeting her. My father was there too, I've never met him either, but he didn't speak at all."

"We must hurry back, a runner will be entering in a few hours," Jareth said as he stood up and began to change. Kiara sighed and nodded hoping that she would be able to keep up. She did her best and Jareth did slow down a few times for her, but Jareth ended up leaving her to transport to the aboveground. Now she was able to take her time and actually stop to see the sights. She landed near the dragon cave she saw earlier and took a look inside.

The cave was very deep, but it was well lit. She called in to see if anyone was around and soon heard loud footsteps coming towards her. It was too late to wonder if this was a bad idea now and she watched as a dark red dragon approached her. It didn't look very nice, but on the bright side it didn't look like it was going to eat her.

"Hi, I'm Kiara, the Goblin Queen. I just wanted to stop in and say hi, I've never met a dragon before." Kiara didn't know if the dragon understood English or if the dragon really cared who she was, she was just praying that she wasn't going to get eaten. She swore she saw the dragon actually roll its eyes right before it walked back into the cave leaving her by herself once again. With a quick shrug, Kiara took off into the air and continued her sightseeing.


	15. Library Books

**A/N Own Nothing. All my love to notwritten and phantom**

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Chapter 15 – Library Books

As she arrived back at the castle, Kiara noticed that Tia had also just arrived. A horde of goblins were carrying in all of her luggage that she had insisted she needed. Kiara was positive that she had never seen so many suitcases in all of her life. Tia saw Kiara hovering overhead and with an evil glare walked into the castle to find Jareth, Kiara followed right behind her.

The two women found Jareth in his throne room singing to a little girl about two years old. The goblins that weren't carrying luggage were singing and dancing with him and having a great time. Even the little girl was enjoying herself as she laughed when Jareth twirled her around. Kiara laughed at the sight, she had only heard rumors that Jareth could occasionally be fun, but to see it was really something else. Tia stood next to her with a very unhappy look on her face.

"Jareth, what in the world are you doing?" Tia asked.

Jareth quickly turned with the little girl still in his arms and answered, "Entertaining the child."

The goblins quickly ran out of Tia's way as she walked closer to Jareth, "Why do you care about keeping that thing entertained? She had better get used to it now that she will soon be your subject and you will not put up with this type of behavior. It's no wonder why your fairy and the goblins are so misbehaved, it's your fault, but it stops right now." Tia turned around and headed towards her own chambers to unpack all of her clothes. Jareth just stood there unsure of what he should do; he knew that he would need to give in to some of Tia's demands if he wanted her to stay around, but he thought that she might have just crossed the line.

"Can I hold her?" Kiara asked, breaking Jareth out of his own thoughts. He handed the girl to her still staring blankly at where Tia was just moments before. "I liked your song and so did she, do you know her name?"

Before Jareth answered, the little girl told her that her name was Laura and that she wanted to play with the goblins some more. Kiara put her down and let the goblins take over the babysitting job. She was still wary of letting one of the most irresponsible creatures in all the underground care for a child, but they were very good at keeping her happy.

"Does Tia even like kids? She better at least get used to them if she is going to your consort."

"I don't know," Jareth answered sitting down on his throne. He pulled out a crystal to see that the child's sister was actually doing really well, it looked like she might win her sister back."

"Are you going to play fair with this one?"

Jareth looked up with a smirk, "I always play fair."

"Sure you do," Kiara said sarcastically and sat down on the window sill looking out into the labyrinth. "You know it's almost Christmas time in the aboveground, we should do something special down here, can you make it snow?"

Jareth almost shuddered, "No, I hate snow and I hate the cold. We do not celebrate your aboveground holidays down here."

Kiara looked slightly disappointed, "Well you were able to stand the cold in the Underworld."

"That doesn't mean I liked it," Jareth interrupted.

"Hmm, well I want it to snow at least a little bit."

"Then do it yourself," Jareth said before getting himself ready to torture the runner.

Kiara turned towards the fae with a confused look, "You would actually let me do it if I could?"

Jareth laughed his evil laugh at the small fairy, "As much as I like the fact that you have yet to really take advantage of the fact that you are queen, you should know that if you wanted to make it snow in the labyrinth that I could not stop you. You might play my servant in front of others, but really the moonstone makes you my equal. Of course, that doesn't mean I want you to act like it." Kiara laughed at Jareth thinking that there was no way she could ever act so high and mighty like him. She really didn't feel like a queen at all.

"But I don't know how to make snow, will you teach me?"

"You know where the library is and I will make you a deal; if you can make it snow a good couple of inches then I will decorate the castle and goblin city for your stupid little holiday." Kiara jumped up excited to give it a try when Jareth continued, "I'm sure you will fail so I won't even have to worry about it." He jumped out the window barely hearing Kiara call him a jerk and some other choice names. She smiled to herself and ran straight for the library to find some spell book to help her out.

The library was a nice cozy place to sit and read, but finding the book you wanted was next to impossible. The goblins always seemed to know where everything was, but Kiara didn't even know where to start. So with a deep breath she tried using one of her new tricks she used for cleaning her own house, she slowly lifted the first book off the highest shelf with her mind and brought it closer to her. It was a history of the labyrinth so Kiara put it to one side. She went through each individual book and separated them all into categories. When she started the books would wobble or move extremely slowly towards her, but by the time she was nearing the end whatever she pointed to would come straight for her.

She had a small pile that looked like they might be helpful and had those piled up on Jareth's desk. The third to last book looked extremely interesting and not because it was a spell book, but because it actually was a photo album. The pictures obviously were taken with magic and not with a camera and even though they were several hundred years old they weren't at all faded.

Kiara began to flip through the book and saw a picture of Jareth's parents standing outside of the castle. The next few pictures were also of them and eventually she got to a picture of Jareth's mother holding and infant that Kiara wrongly assumed was Jareth. The pictures continued and the child grew into a small girl with beautiful dark red hair and bright blue eyes. The next little baby that appeared definitely was Jareth; the little boy had the most unmanageable blond hair Kiara had ever seen. She smiled as she continued to watch the two children grow up in the pictures, some of them had a second girl in it around Jareth's age and soon saw the third child was born, most likely Broderick. The last picture was of Jareth and Broderick when Jareth looked about ten years old and Broderick looked like he was six; Kiara had no clue had old they really were. In the picture Jareth was wearing his medallion and neither of the kids looked happy at all.

Now that she was finished the book Kiara decided that was a good enough break and finished categorizing the last two books and telling them go back on the shelves in order. She smiled at her rapid improvement in her telekinetic abilities and sat down to start skimming through the pages to figure out how to make it snow. By the time she decided to call it a night the most she had done was make it rain in the room.

Tia was wandering the hallways toward the kitchen to get a midnight snack when Kiara accidentally bumped into her. "Oh sorry Tia, I didn't see you," Kiara said moving out of the fae's way. Tia just glared at her in reply and continued to walk away from Kiara. "Hey Tia, I haven't seen Gannon around. Did he come back with you?"

With an evil smirk, Tia turned and laughed at Kiara, "No he didn't. Too bad for you little fairy, Gannon had bonded with someone else and isn't interested in you anymore." She continued to laugh as she walked out of Kiara's sight.

Twenty minutes later and a goblin found Kiara still standing in the same spot. She snapped out of her thoughts and finally what Tia had said to her really started to sink in. It didn't matter that they agreed to only have fun for a little while; Kiara was really starting to like Gannon and maybe even love him. Now he would get married to someone else and Kiara was back to being alone. She walked home slowly feeling her heart break. Sleep came relatively fast, however the morning came way too quickly.


	16. Snow Storms

A/N Own Nothing

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Chapter 16 – Snow Storms

Morning came too early for Jareth as well; he wasn't sure why he was so tired that morning, but he didn't think much about it until after he began his patrol through the labyrinth. Everything looked normal and perfect until he felt that horrible feeling, he felt that Kiara was very upset and decided to go down to her cottage and demand breakfast and while he was there he could find out what was wrong with her now.

Jareth walked in and felt the bad feelings get stronger as he got closer to Kiara. He yelled out her name and was surprised to hear that she didn't answer. At the very least he would have expected her to call him some name or yell back at him, but she didn't say anything. He slowly went into her bedroom and saw that she was still in bed with her covers over her head. "Fairy, get up and cook for me," Jareth demanded as he grabbed the blanket away.

"No," Kiara answered but didn't make any attempt to pull the blanket back.

"You would allow the king to go hungry?" Jareth asked trying to get a rise out of her.

"Have Tia cook for you," she responded. Jareth made a face remembering the one time he tasted her cooking.

"Get up and cook, I am hungry."

Kiara slowly sat up, but didn't get out of bed. She tried to decide whether doing what Jareth wanted was worth it or not. She spent most of the morning worrying about what if she never bonded with anyone and it depressed her more to think that Jareth missed his chance to bond with someone since Sarah didn't love him. "Jareth, what would you do if Tia bonded with someone else?"

Jareth sat down next to her and shrugged, "Find a new consort. What does that have to do with breakfast?"

Kiara rolled her eyes at Jareth's seemingly one track mind, "Would you really be able to find one that easily? The whole bond thing is really just stupid." Kiara pouted and she looked like a small unhappy child. Jareth raised his eyebrows at her and she continued, "Gannon bonded with someone else."

Rain started pouring down all around the labyrinth only Kiara didn't notice she was doing it. Jareth stared out her window realizing now what he was feeling from her earlier. "It is simpler; it takes all the guesswork out of who you should be with."

"What if I am not meant to be with anyone?" Kiara asked as a single tear fell down the side of her face. Jareth resisted the urge to wipe it off, but instead took notice that the snow had begun to fall and it was coming down fairly hard.

"While you wait you can continue to make my life hell by proving me wrong and making it snow."

Kiara looked confused as she looked out her window and a small smile formed on her face, "I did that?" Jareth nodded and went into the kitchen to wait for her to cook for him. Now that she was fully distracted she would be more than happy to let him push her around again. Jareth smiled to himself liking how it was occasionally very easy to distract her, just some snow that she accidentally made herself. He almost didn't notice her run right by him to go outside.

"Kiara, get back in here," he demanded.

"But it's snowing," she complained grumpily as she came back and got out a pan to make him some French toast. She bounced around the kitchen giddily as she cooked, "I can't wait to see the decorations you put up in the goblin city."

Jareth put his hand over his face, he had forgotten all about that. He knew that once he started decorating that Tia would want to have a say in it and then it could get very frustrating and very tiring. He nodded slowly and tried to think of a sneaky way to do it as he ate. There was no way he would be able to keep Tia out of the goblin city for that long.

As soon as the kitchen was cleaned up Kiara ran out of the door and down to Hoggle's house, she was sad to find that he was still gone visiting Rubina. She ran towards the goblin city, slipping once on some ice that already formed. Jareth slowly followed, partially wanting to see how the goblins would react to snow. He was pleased to find out that they all were very confused, but they all were having a great time. Snowball fights, snowmen and snow angels could be found almost everywhere they looked. The castle looked even more magical with the layers of snow and ice glistening on top of it.

When he thought that Kiara was not watching him Jareth joined in some of the games and threw a few snowballs at some of the goblins. Kiara just shook her head at the king, but let him have his fun and pretended not to see. Their fun was interrupted by the sound of Tia's voice. "Jareth, look at all of this snow; did you do this?" She looked happy to have a reason to show off her burgundy fur coat.

"No, Kiara did it."

"The fairy?" she asked in disbelief. Jareth nodded and told her about the little deal he made with her. "That's great then, I would love to help decorate the city for Christmas." Tia immediately got the goblins attention and began pointing out what needed to go where and making demands for Jareth to use his magic to get her what she needed.

Jareth sighed and followed her and did everything she asked. Kiara just watched and didn't say much since Tia was doing a pretty nice job. When she was able she whispered a question to Jareth, "Tell me again why you let her hang around. Don't you find her unbelievably annoying?"

"Good point, why doI let you hang around?" Jareth replied angrily and continued to follow Tia around the city. Kiara wasn't sure if Jareth was really mad at her or not but decided to let it go. He would come around either way. She helped a goblin built a snow fort and then went home for some hot chocolate.

The next morning the snow was still coming down. Jareth realized that he would need to help Kiara get it to stop or they would have a horrible blizzard on their hands. He tried to fly his way to the cottage having a difficult time seeing where he was going. He found Kiara putting the finishing touches on a snowman and a snowwoman in her front yard as he landed near her.

"Hi!" Kiara greeted him cheerfully. She was happy with her work and thought of a great idea, "Hey Jareth how do you take pictures in the underground?" Jareth looked confused for a second, but Kiara continued before he could answer, "I saw your family photo album in the library so I know you can do it. I want a picture of us in front of my snow us."

Jareth rolled his eyes but brought out a crystal and handed it to Kiara. When she turned it the crystal changed into a large black book similar to the one she had seen. "Just pose and will the picture to show up in the book; if you can make a blizzard in the labyrinth then you can easily do this."

Kiara smiled and put the book down as she pulled Jareth to stand in front of snow Jareth. She looked up at him and giggled, "Smile Jareth."

"No," he responded. Kiara shrugged and focused on taking the picture. The third time was the charm and she saw the colors start forming in the book. It was a beautiful picture and even though Jareth wasn't smiling he did have his smirk on.

"That's perfect, "Kiara said happily and put the book in a safe place. Jareth noticed that the happier she became the more the snow began to slow down. It had slowed down just enough that he was able to stop it the rest of the way; he was about to leave now that his problem was solved, but Kiara dragged him into the house to show him something else. "Look at what I got," she said excitedly, "Hoggle proposed to Rubina and Kenisha is having the wedding next week." She showed him the letter and Jareth now knew what was making her extra happy. "I get to see the mermaids."

The letter requested that Jareth send a notice to Hoggle's relatives and that he bring Kiara down to help with the wedding plans. He inwardly groaned knowing full well that Tia would not be happy with him spending the week with Kiara. She was starting to hate the fairy more and more; this was not going to help the situation.

"Fine we will leave tomorrow, now start cooking," Jareth demanded unhappily.

Kiara smirked at the goblin king knowing assuming that he wasn't happy because he would have to do what she wanted. "Alright, your royal pain in my ass. What are you hungry for?" Jareth just shrugged so Kiara started making some grilled cheese sandwiches. When they were finished she served him and sat down while he ate.

"You're not planning on eating?" he asked once again hoping that he didn't sound like he actually cared for her.

She shook her head, "No, I've been having bad cramps for the past two days. I haven't been really hungry either. I was actually wondering about that since I've come here I haven't had…." She stopped suddenly embarrassed to be talking about her monthly cycles with Jareth. She made a mental note to ask Rubina or Kenisha instead. Jareth raised an eyebrow at her but didn't say anything else. He continued to eat glad that Kiara wasn't as touchy as she used to be; when she first came down into the underground she was quick to leave if Jareth was being too demanding or if they argued, but since he gave her the moonstone she seemed to not mind as much.

Kiara watched as his expression grew much more serious while he ate and as much as she loved to bug him she decided to let him stay in his own thoughts. He was thinking about how to make sure she stayed happy in the underground without actually being nice to her. It hurt him enough when she left him because of Broderick and he wasn't sure if he could take being rejected a third time even if he wasn't interested in her in that way. He looked at her as she started cleaning up the kitchen and wondered not for the first time what it was about her that made him want to be near her. He shrugged it off and left the cottage telling her to be ready early the next morning to leave for Kenisha's kingdom.


	17. Hoggle's Family

A/N Own Nothing, Thanks to my awesome beta phantom

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Chapter 17 – Hoggle's Family

Just as Jareth had expected Tia was overly interested in where Jareth was planning on going and wanted to tag along, mostly because Kiara was going. "I would be a great help to Kenisha and am much better than her at planning events." Jareth nodded figuring it would be much easier for him if he just let her have her way. It just wasn't as fun for him to annoy her like it was when he annoyed Kiara. He sent a goblin to notify Hoggle's parents of the wedding arrangements.

The goblin messenger hurried through the labyrinth and arrived at his destination the following morning. Hoggle's parents lived right outside of Jareth's kingdom; the area belonged to an older king and queen with no children. He knocked on the door and waited until an old dwarf woman answered. The woman was extremely surprised to hear the news, but didn't look very happy about it. She told the goblin that they would be attending the wedding and got herself and her husband packed to leave. While she packed she remembered the day that Jareth brought Hoggle to them.

A much younger dwarf girl named Geraldine was sitting with her husband on some rocks that decorated the yard in the front of their new cottage. They weren't married for long and felt very lucky to find each other since the dwarf population had been steadily declining over the past thousand years. They were surprised to see Jareth pop in with a small five year old human child.

"What is this?" Geraldine asked with extremely distaste. Neither she nor her husband wanted a child, but they were the ones chosen to take care of the latest wish away.

"This is Hoggle, he is destined to become a dwarf and you two will care for him," a much younger Jareth answered. At the time he looked like a fourteen or fifteen year old boy and still felt really new to the job.

Marcus, the new father, looked up at Jareth, "We don't want him; take him back to his mother."

Jareth glared angrily at the dwarves and they started to cower as the sky darkened, "His mother wished him away and she didn't even try to solve the labyrinth so you have been chosen to take the boy." Jareth harshly pushed the young child in their direction not even noticing that he was starting to cry; only a few hours before he was playing with some goblins and now everyone was arguing because no one wanted him.

Jareth left the boy with the two dwarves who grudgingly took the boy in knowing full well that even though they were outside of the his territory that Jareth would come back and show his wrath if the boy was not properly taken care of. They fed and clothed the boy and taught him what all young dwarves must learn before sending him out to become a man. They were satisfied that they did their job and rarely heard from Hoggle again; the only reason they were coming to the wedding at all was pure curiosity of how their son turned out.

The couple did end up having a son of their own that Hoggle always believed that they loved much more than him. He was probably right too since they were a little less impatient and a little more lenient with this one. His brother, Dagon, constantly fought with him about everything; they were rivals from the moment he was born. Since Dagon lived nearby, Geraldine decided that they would stop along to way to bring him to the wedding.

When morning came Kiara was fully packed and ready for Jareth to stop by and hopefully instantly transport to Kenisha's kingdom. She wasn't sure how well she could fly while holding all of her bags. She saw a bunch of goblins running towards her with more bags than Jareth would ever need. She almost cringed knowing that the luggage was a sure sign that Tia was going with them. She saw Jareth in the distance with Tia walking next to him chatting to him about something. He looked annoyed, but didn't stop her and didn't really say anything to her.

"Hi," Kiara sadly as cheerfully as she could manage. Jareth nodded slightly, but Tia didn't even acknowledge that she spoke. "So Jareth, how are you planning on getting us there?"

"The goblins will take the luggage and I will have to transport the three of us." He looked unhappy because he would prefer to fly, but Tia couldn't fly. He quickly told Tia to make sure she had everything she needed and walked inside of Kiara's cottage. Kiara followed promising to bring back some drinks for everyone before they started their journey. Tia was tempted to follow, but decided that she would not sink as low as Jareth and enter the house of a servant.

Kiara watched as Jareth sat in his normal spot on the couch. She slowly sat next to him and knew that she was probably going to get a mean version of Jareth when she asked, "Do you even like Tia?" Jareth glared at her but didn't respond. "I didn't think so. You don't have to put up with her just because she pretends to like you."

Jareth's eyes turned cold and harsh as his anger rose, "I don't remember asking your opinion."

"Well, I'm giving it to you anyway. There are other, better people to be with that don't just want you because you're available and lonely."

Jareth let out an evil laugh, "You forget little fairy that I am a king and have no need for anyone else."

"Then why do you keep coming here? Why do you let me visit you on your balcony late at night? Obviously you need me."

"To keep me alive."

Kiara would have been hurt, but she was sure that wasn't true, "Is that the only reason?" Jareth didn't answer her and just continued to sit there while Kiara served the goblins some lemonade. He could hear Tia making some comments about Kiara, but he didn't really care right then. He knew that she was right and he was letting Tia hang around just because he was lonely; he just wished that he didn't also hate to be near her at the same time. It really didn't make sense for him to keep someone around who didn't really help his problem; he still felt lonely anytime he wasn't with Kiara.

Tia was annoyed with Jareth by the time he came out of the house, "Jareth, what were you doing in there? Do you know how long I have been waiting with these filthy goblins?" Instead of answering, Jareth just put his arms around Tia and Kiara praying that this week would go by fast. Within a few second the three out them found themselves on the edge of the ocean near a small house built on the rocks. Rubina and Kenisha could be seen outside discussing something, most likely the wedding plans.

Kiara spread her wings and flew the short distance towards her friend, almost knocking her over in the process. The dwarf giggled slightly, but then remembered that she was in the presence of her queen. "Hello Kenisha," Kiara said happily receiving a slight nod from the Queen in return.

"He brought her along?" Kenisha asked as she looked at Jareth who was entertaining Tia by swinging her over the water. It was the first time that Kiara actually saw Jareth happy while he was with the fae princess.

"I wish he would have you as a consort instead of her. She is so bossy and treats all of the goblins like shit. I really don't know how Jareth can stand her, but he seems to be able to put up with listening to all her chatter."

Kenisha smiled as she remembered the days when they were children, before Jareth's father had died. "When we were young we used to play together and I always played the role of his queen, although Jareth's sister Maya always ruined the fun saying that she would be queen. " Kiara nodded now putting names to the all of the children she saw in the photo album.

"So Rubina fill me in on what you have planned so far." Rubina started telling Kiara exactly what she would love to have and Kenisha listened in mentally making a list of everything that would need to be done.

"My sisters need dresses; that is going to be the hardest to do in time."

Kiara smirked with a plan as she called out to the princess, "Tia! We need your help with clothes." Almost immediately Tia ran over to them followed by Jareth. "Alright Tia, Rubina needs bridesmaid dresses made and you are the best person to help design them. I'm sure Jareth won't mind helping you out with the magic part."

Tia clapped her hands excitedly, "I knew that I could be useful. I think a nice emerald green would look great, especially against the ocean." Rubina looked unsure, but didn't respond; even if it was going to be her wedding she could not go against the wishes of a fae.

"Actually Tia, Rubina would prefer a reddish brown color," Kiara said standing up for her small friend.

"No, that wouldn't work right, emerald is much better," Tia insisted. Kenisha watched Kiara's reaction hoping that she wouldn't have to get involved in this fight.

"Brown. The dresses will be brown or we won't be needing your help after all," Kiara responded. Tia looked back at Jareth for help, but only found him smirking and trying not to laugh. She nodded and used her small bit of magic to create a small model and a basic brown dress. They spent about an hour designing it and then after Rubina was fully satisfied they started on her dress.


	18. Underwater Breathing

A/N Own Nothing, Thanks to my awesome beta phantom

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Chapter 18 – Underwater Breathing

When all the dress work was done Kiara went to visit with Hoggle while the fae went down into the ocean to see the castle. Hoggle was nervous about the event and even more so when he heard that his parents had been told about the wedding.

The next day Jareth had some free time away from Tia; she was busy helping Kenisha decorate the hall that the reception was going to be in. During that time Jareth explained to Kiara why so many fae were coming for a dwarf's wedding, "A fae's personal servant is their property and when one gets permission to marry the celebration is seen as more for the owner than for the bride."

Kiara slowly waded into the ocean as she listened; she had finally convinced Jareth to teach her how to breathe underwater and she didn't want to distract him too much. "Does that mean I am your property?"

Jareth smirked as he pulled the fairy under the water, "Yes you are and yet you are my equal because you are my queen; it is an interesting dilemma isn't it?" Kiara struggled against him for a minute before relaxing; she was sure that Jareth wouldn't actually drown her and let himself die in the process. He was hoping that she would learn on her own, but so far it wasn't working and he let her back up.

"Why don't you marry Kenisha so that I can come here all the time and enjoy the ocean?" Kiara asked before she was pulled back under once again. She watched the way Jareth was holding himself under the water and tried to will the oxygen from the water into her lungs, but this time she ended up making herself choke. Jareth released her and stayed below the surface speaking to her with his mind.

"I am already married and so is Kenisha," Jareth responded sadly. It sounded like he had thought of it many times before; he vaguely remembered Kenisha telling him the "good" news.

Kenisha was still very young for a fae, with the outward appearance of a sixteen year old girl. Jareth was stressed out from his kingly duties and already in a bad mood when he heard Kenisha speaking to Broderick about the boy she had just met. He walked in angrily, "You bonded with someone?"

Kenisha smiled and nodded towards her childhood friend, "You know Liam, the prince of the land of dreams?" Jareth nodded even though he only met him once. "Well we met in my dream and I just had to go there and see if it was real and it was."

"Can I have your kingdom?" young Broderick asked. He looked like he was barely a preteen and already desperate to be a king.

Kenisha rolled her eyes at the annoying child, "No, I am going to keep it and we will figure out a way to work it out." Jareth didn't say anything more; he was jealous of Liam wishing that it was him that bonded with her.

Kiara watched Jareth's sad eyes as he told her who Kenisha's husband was, "Oh she never mentioned him, but I guess she is used to being separated so much after a couple centuries."

Jareth pulled Kiara under one last time with some advice, "Don't breathe through your nose or your mouth." Kiara looked at him strangely but thought about it while she was swimming there. She tried to imagine breathing through her skin; she almost choked laughing at the thought, but the more she thought about it the more she realized she had been under the water for a long time now and didn't need to swim to the top. Jareth was smiling feeling slightly proud that his fairy was such a quick learner, "You might want to tuck your wings in more tightly if you want to swim." Kiara did and followed Jareth deep into the water into a small cave.

At first Kiara was frightened of the small spot, but she soon saw that it was filled with gems of all kinds and random pieces of gold and silver jewelry with no sign of aging or being damaged from the water. "It looks likes Ariel's grotto," Kiara thought and Jareth nodded slightly. "I can talk in my mind like you?"

"Seems like it," Jareth replied. "Now don't go swimming off without me or Kenisha; I don't want to find out you've drowned yourself somewhere and risked my life."

"Uhhuh," she responded as she looked at all the beautiful things.

"One other thing, I want you to stay close to one of us for the remainder of the visit."

Kiara turned to see Jareth looking absolutely serious; she would have tried to be difficult, but it didn't seem like the right time for it, "Alright, why?"

"Broderick and Vivian are due to arrive sometime today and I don't want any chances of them trying to harm you."

Kiara was frightened for a minute but tried to act like she didn't care. "Aww you care about me," she said as she swam closer to Jareth and put her head on his shoulder. He pushed her away in fake disgust and rolled his eyes. The two stayed exploring the ocean for another few hours before returning to the surface. Kiara was exhausted by all of the swimming and wondered how Kenisha and the mermaids managed to do that every day.

The rest of the day and most of the following day was filled with planning and Kiara was only too happy to help make sure that Rubina got everything she wanted. Jareth left her at Rubina's house so that she could have dinner with her friend and the two of them found Hoggle cowering in the corner. They were about to question what he was doing when someone knocked at the door. Rubina opened it and found two older and one middle aged dwarf standing there.

"You must be Rubina," the older woman said. Rubina nodded and the woman sighed unhappily. "Well I guess you will have to do won't you. I am going to be your mother-in-law." Rubina continued to stand at the door with her eyes wide and just stepped aside to let her new family members in. She wasn't really sure how to react to the woman's comment so she just ignored it; being a servant gave her plenty of practice at ignoring rude remarks.

Hoggle stood as straight as possible and walked over to greet his parents and brother. He wasn't surprised to see that they weren't happy with his fiancé and that they didn't seem really happy to be there.

Marcus shook his head at Hoggle, "You have chosen a very inconvenient time to hold a wedding and you could have given us more notice." Kiara watched as Hoggle just apologized to his father; he wasn't really acting like himself at all. He seemed more of a coward than normal and he wasn't being his usually grumpy self; there was almost no personality to him. His father continued to talk about all of Dagon's accomplishments over the last century while Hoggle just nodded.

Rubina finally interrupted to show Hoggle's parents to a spare bedroom, but Dagon stayed back for a minute to speak to Hoggle, "Hey I know he gives ya a hard time and all, but I'm sure he's happy for ya. I know I am; I ain't been lucky to find anyone at all and definitely not someone as beautiful as her." Hoggle looked up at his brother surprised at the change, but then again a lot of time had passed and they were both very different people the last time they saw each other. Dagon chuckled slightly at his brother's reaction and went off to find the room he would be spending the next few days.

Dinner turned out to be extremely awkward since Hoggle's parents continued to make rude or unhappy comments, but Hoggle seemed to be almost used to it and didn't really respond to anything they said. Kiara wondered if Jareth had been wrong when he told her that the children he brought underground were better off without their real parents.


	19. The Wedding

A/N Own Nothing, All my love to phantom for being my beta and to notwritten my loyal reviewer.

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Chapter 19 – The Wedding

It wasn't until the day before Rubina and Hoggle's wedding that Kiara saw any sign of Vivian or Broderick; she had met a great many fae and was actually surprised that Jareth was actually introducing her as the Goblin Queen even though it obviously pissed off Tia. They decided to make their presence known when Tia pulled Jareth away from Kiara; they quickly came up behind her and Broderick whispered in her ear, "How is the pathetic little fairy?"

Kiara gasped and spun around to see the two most evil people she had ever met standing right in front of her. She tried to put on a brave front, but it was hard since Jareth was not there to protect her. She knew that there was no way she could ever fight two of them; she was barely able to fight Broderick, "What do you want?"

"You know what we want," he answered as he pulled her wing to spin her back around, "Now go back to the party and put on a happy face." He pushed her while Vivian laughed and they walked away. Kiara glared at them wondering what their plan was; she didn't have much time to think about it because Jareth was quickly walking towards her. He looked concerned and was slightly confused to see her by herself; he was sure that he felt her fear.

"What happened?" he asked, "I told you not to go too far away."

Kiara rolled her eyes, "I didn't mean to, but your princess wanted you all to herself; anyway Broderick and Vivian came over to scare me. How did you know something happened?" Jareth didn't answer her, but he did look a bit angry and scanned the crowd to see if he could find any sign of his brother. He grabbed her by the arm, not being gentle at all and pulled her over to where Tia and Kenisha were discussing the finishing touches for the party.

"Jareth, you're hurting me," Kiara hissed at him trying to pull her arm away. It only made him tighten his grip and she started to really get worried. "I guess you should have given the moonstone to a fae so that you wouldn't have to worry so much."

Jareth spun Kiara toward him quickly once again scaring her; he was getting annoyed of her constantly seeming to think that she wasn't good enough to be his queen. He chose her for a reason even if he never told her; he chose her because he wanted her to be with him. "You think this is the first time someone has tried to do something like this?" Jareth whispered angrily. "No matter who I chose they would try to go after them and kill them to get to me. It's better I chose you since you can actually defend yourself somewhat." Kiara didn't know how to respond to that so she just looked down and kept her mouth shut until they met up with their friends.

With some help from Kenisha's magic, Rubina's wedding day turned out to be absolutely beautiful. Hoggle stood in front of Kenisha with Didymus, Ludo and his Dagon by his side. He had decided the night before that he needed to put aside sibling rivalry at least for the one day and Dagon was happy to be a part of it. Rubina's three sisters were standing on the other side in the dresses Tia had designed. The beach was filled with fae and the water had many merpeople hovering at the top to see the ceremony.

Rubina was hidden by a curtain behind all of the guests and she was actually feeling a little panicked. She loved Hoggle very much and the bond between them was strong, but she started to worry about dealing with his grumpiness and insecurities. Before she could talk herself out of it Kiara gave her a good push out of the curtain and she saw Hoggle waiting for her. Rubina smiled as she saw how happy he was and made her way up the aisle. Jareth sat in his chair trying to pretend to be completely bored, but he couldn't help but steal a peak at the dwarven bride. Tia kept whispering to him little comments about her favorite parts of the dress and he pretended to listen. He was more interested in the fact that Kiara had taken the seat on the other side and that she was feeling a little uncomfortable; he probably wouldn't even have noticed it if she wasn't so close.

He glanced over at her and saw her eyes flickering between watching her two friends and something behind them. He turned around and saw that his brother and his wife were sitting just two rows behind them and Broderick had on an evil smirk that he knew all too well since his looked exactly the same. Without even thinking Jareth protectively put an arm around his queen and looked forward. Tia noticed and sat in her chair with her arms crossed angrily.

After the party was over Hoggle and Rubina started their journey to the Land of Dreams where Liam had set them up in a great place for their honeymoon. A few fae began to linger around and even though it was probably safe now Kiara stayed next to Jareth and was being unusually quiet. Tia was still in a bad mood, but pretended to be happy around all the other fae as she found out the latest gossip. Jareth sat down on a large rock as he waited for Tia to be done socializing and Kiara sat in front of him on the sand. They spent about an hour in complete silence before Jareth really started getting concerned.

"Would you like to make a bet on how much longer she can gossip?" Jareth asked hoping that a jab at Tia would put the little fairy in a better mood. Kiara just shrugged and pulled her knees into her chest. "You will be perfectly safe once we get back to the labyrinth where Vivian and Broderick cannot enter." She nodded and continued to sit in silence for awhile until finally Jareth had to know what was with her, "Is something wrong?"

"No, not really. My stomach just hurts; I had bad cramps for awhile, but now it's just getting worse," she answered and continued to wait for Tia. Jareth decided that if something was wrong then they should return right away and got up to tell Tia that they would be going home immediately. Tia wasn't happy, but she followed Jareth over to where Kiara was sitting and soon found themselves back at the castle.

Tia left to change out of the sandy filled clothes and Jareth transported Kiara into her own bedroom. Now that she was alone Kiara stopped holding in what her pride was blocking and tears streamed down her face as she cried out in pain. She didn't know what was going on but it was the worst thing she had ever felt. She laid down in her bed and curled up hoping that it would pass. After another hour or so she was so exhausted that she fell asleep even with the pain.


	20. Eggs and Fairies

A/N Own Nothing, Love to Phantom and Notwritten. Anyone else like the story? Hate the story?

Chapter 20 – Eggs and Fairies

When she woke up Kiara was happy to find that her stomach was perfectly fine and she was starving. She started to get out of bed when she felt something at the bottom. Tentatively she pulled off the covers and started in confused to the large oval object sitting at the bottom of her bed. Slowly she reached out and touched it and it felt like an egg. She couldn't believe what she was seeing; did she really lay an egg in the middle of the night? The egg was green and brown with a few black blotches scattered around. She wasn't sure what to do and almost immediately screamed for Jareth, but something stopped her. Instead she used to mirror to call Didymus.

Didymus' face appeared in the mirror and smiled as he greeted her, "Yes my lady, what doest thou need?"

"Hi Didymus, I was just wondering if you knew where any fairies lived that I could talk to. I have some fairy questions," Kiara said trying to sound calm. If Didymus thought something was wrong he didn't show it.

"Of course my lady, I believe there is a group of woodland fairies that live right outside the edge of the labyrinth on the border of the fiery territory."

"Great," Kiara said with a smile, "Thanks a lot." She hurriedly put the egg in a satchel and started flying to the area Didymus had mentioned. She found the fiery territory with no problem, but now she was walking through woods with no idea where she was headed or where she was. It was getting really dark already especially with all of the trees blocking most of the light and she started stumbling blindly through until she bumped into someone.

"What are you doing here?" the person asked harshly. Kiara tried to focus her eyes, but they were still adjusting to the dark.

"I am looking for the woodland fairies; can you point me in the right direction?" Kiara asked as the person came closer. Her vision was starting to clear now and she could see that it was another young woman.

"You've found them, now what do you want?" asked the woman. Kiara could see her wings now and began to relax; she would have her answers soon. She slowly opened up her bag and showed it to the other fairy. "It's an egg. You came here to bring some egg you've laid?"

Kiara shook her head, "I haven't been a fairy for long and I don't know anything about them. I was shocked as hell to see an egg lying on the bottom of my bed; I didn't even know fairies laid eggs."

The girl rolled her eyes and motioned for Kiara to follow her, "Come with me and meet the rest of us. I am Katrina and it looks like you are going to have an egg to take care of."

"How long until it hatches?"

Katrina shrugged, "Some take a few weeks, some take a few years and some never hatch. It really isn't difficult to take care of the egg though, just keep it dry and warm and check in once in awhile to see if it's hatched." Kiara felt relieved to have another fairy to speak to and this one looked really nice; there was something warm in her eyes even though her body stance seemed to indicate that she was more of a warrior or something. They soon reached a large fire with about fifteen woodland fairies standing and sitting around it; none of these fairies had that warm look in their eyes.

"Brothers and sisters, I have brought a fairy from the labyrinth here so that she may learn about being a fairy," Katrina announced as she took the egg from Kiara. She motioned for her to sit by the fire while the others inspected her.

A very old looking fairy woman knelt in front of her with an evil smile. Kiara was frightened slightly, but continued to wait to hear what they had to say. "You belong to the Goblin King?" the old woman asked and Kiara nodded. "Good, I've heard much about you and you can be very useful to me." A couple of middle aged fairies came on either side of her and slowly began wrapping a vine around each of her arms. She turned to look at Katrina who seemed to be backing away slowly and trying not be noticed.

"I came because I laid an egg and I have no clue what to do. What are the vines for?" Kiara asked as the men stood on either side of her.

"To bind you," the old fairy answered with an evil laugh. She turned to the men and said, "Tie her in the middle of the runes to wait for Prince Broderick."

Kiara's eyes widened and she tried to use her magic to help get her free, but nothing worked. She tried to pull the vines off of her arms, but they wouldn't budge. She struggled against the other fairies and even bit one of them, but they did not release her. Two more fairies came to help restrain her and took her further off into the woods. They came to a large area with a stone design built into the ground and she was tied in the middle of it. She tried calling out to Jareth, but he didn't come to save her. There was nothing she could do, but wait and see what Broderick had in store for her now.

Jareth had spent most of the day paying attention to his consort trying to get her to get over her jealousy towards the little fairy. After he agreed to watch her model some of her latest outfits Princess Tia was moderately appeased. He continued to remind her that he only cared if the fairy lived and stayed in the underground. Tia pouted knowing full well that Kiara had the power to leave if she was unhappy. She wanted to make Jareth see that she would make a much better choice.

As the sun was setting Jareth could feel that something was not right. He wasn't sure what it was, but something seemed off. His first instinct was to go and check on his fairy, but he didn't want to just run off to see her for any little thing so he stayed holding his consort in his bed. They had just finished round two when Jareth felt Kiara calling for him. He sat up and concentrated on her trying to get a feel for want she wanted. He couldn't decide if it was nothing really important or if she was too far away to really tell. He started to get out of bed to find her when Tia grabbed his arm.

"You can't just leave every time the girl calls for you. You need to show her that she doesn't own you and that I am the most important person in your life," she said harshly as she pulled Jareth back into the bed. "I think you made a bad choice anyway and I know how to fix it." Jareth looked at her curiously and she smiled as she handed him a small book she had stored under his bed.

The book was obviously very old and had the title, "Legendary Gems." Jareth raised an eyebrow as Tia flipped it open to the chapter on the moonstone. "This book was actually written by the creator of the moonstone," Tia said excitedly. "And on the next page it shows a ritual that will let you get rid of the disgusting fairy all together." Jareth didn't look convinced but read the section about the ritual. It didn't matter how cruel he was or pretended to be there was no way he would have ever that to anyone. The ritual was designed to remove the heart and soul from the person wearing the moonstone and put their essence into the stone. In that way the moonstone could just be worn by the living fae with no fear of what was happening to the other person. The leftover part would still be alive, but blank and empty. "Broderick gave it to me while we were at the wedding."

"I will think about it," Jareth said hoping that he could push it off until Tia forgot about the whole thing. He went out to his balcony hoping that Kiara would join him. Sadly he saw no signs of the fairy and eventually went to bed still feeling that something was off.

Early the next morning Kiara woke up feeling extremely stiff from being tied in the same position all night, but she barely had the chance to try and stretch when she felt something burn her wings. She cried out and turned her head angrily only to see a fairy holding a torch with Broderick and Vivian watching and laughing.

"I see you put a spell on the moonstone, very clever little fairy. Now this just leaves me with one choice," he said with an evil grin. Vivian continued to laugh and sat down on the side to watch the torture begin. "I know that Jareth will come to save you, but there is no way he can stand up to both of us. In the meantime, the fairies will entertain us." Kiara looked around worriedly and saw that many of the woodland fairies were surrounding her holding sharp, hot and heavy objects. They slowly began while the two fae watched in amusement. Towards the end Kiara's hair was cut really short, her wings were almost completely burned off and she had lost a lot of blood. She begged for Jareth to come and save her, but it wasn't looking good.


	21. Two Against One

A/N Own Nothing

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Chapter 21 – Two Against One

Jareth woke up the next morning and jumped right out of bed. There was something very wrong and this time he was sure of it. He definitely felt fear coming from Kiara and he was sure that she needed him. He began to head out to find her when a small angry voice stopped him. "Jareth," Tia began, "If you go after that fairy I will leave you. I can't take being second any longer."

Her words hit Jareth's most vulnerable spot; he wasn't sure that he was strong enough to face another rejection. Slowly he walked away from the window and sat on the bed with his head in his hands. Tia smiled happily, "See things just being me and you will be so much better. It really isn't good for your image to be seen running around with some lowly creature; it's already bad enough you let the goblins roam the castle freely."

Jareth nodded his mind still on Kiara, however it didn't last very long because a knock at the door interrupted Tia's attempts at proving how much better she was. Rabz, the messenger goblin, came in and bowed deeply when he saw that Tia was in the room. "Your Highness, there is news from Prince Broderick."

"What news?" Jareth asked angrily. If it had something to do with his brother then it wasn't going to be good news.

"The prince has the Lady Kiara and wants to know why you haven't rescued her yet. He says that he has her outside of the woodland fairy area on the outside of the labyrinth."

Jareth immediately got up and headed out the window and this time Tia didn't stop him. She had enough of this; she packed up all of her bags leaving a note for Jareth that she was through with him and not to speak to her again unless the fairy was dead. Wasting no time Jareth flew as fast as his wings would take him to the woodland fairies territory. The old fairy was only too happy to point him in the right direction and many fairies sat up in the trees to watch what was going on.

Katrina also sat in a tree watching and wishing that she could do something about all of this. Her clan had decided to follow Prince Broderick's orders and capture the Queen when and if she ever came to them for help. They expected to have to wait a lot longer for her to fall into the trap, but no one was complaining. Katrina kept the egg safe and waited for an opportune moment to help if she could.

Jareth walked in and tried the best he could to hide the surprise that he felt. Never in all his years did he realize what his brother was capable of. Along the outside of the rune the elves had started a small fire that was growing larger with every minute with Kiara in the middle. Broderick and Vivian stood from their spots to greet Jareth and negotiate the fairy's release. Jareth barely even recognized Kiara until she looked up at him with her eyes begging for help. The fire was already hot and she was starting to lose consciousness from the heat and the pain.

"Broderick, what have you done?" Jareth asked and attempted to use his magic to put out the fire.

"Not so fast Jareth," Broderick said and together with his wife they were easily able to block any magic he used. "I think we should have a little trade, hmm? Your disgusting wife for your kingdom."

Jareth's eyes blazed angrily as the sky began to blacken. "Neither of you even like the labyrinth, why do you want it?"

Vivian smirked and answered, "Any kingdom is better than none at all and once I am queen I will make sure that it is made much more suitable."

"You two will suffer for this if I have to get the high council to strip your powers," Jareth yelled not really knowing what he could do. He did not have the power to fight them and he couldn't stop the fire that was now higher than Kiara. It was almost enough to make him give everything up; there was no way out, but that didn't stop him from trying. Jareth began to use all of the magic he had to try and fight the two evil fae.

Katrina found her opportunity; the fire was too high now for anyone to see her pop in and the fae were involved with their little fight. She appeared inside of the circle of fire and found a barely conscious Kiara still trying to struggle with the vines on her arm. "Kiara, I will get these for you," she whispered to the injured fairy.

Kiara looked up, "Thank you, but why are you helping me and what can I do? I am so tired and even with my help Jareth can't win."

Now that the vines were off Katrina new that Kiara would at least have a chance. "I do not agree with the rest of the fairies, but please do not tell anyone. I don't know how you can defeat them, but try keeping it simple. Think of something they can't stand or something that will definitely harm them." With that Katrina was gone, leaving Kiara still in the middle of a blazing circle of fire to think.

"What will hurt a fae?" Kiara said to herself, "A bolt of magic they can easily recover from if they don't deflect it. They don't melt in the rain, they are afraid of anything being better than them but that doesn't really help." Frustrated Kiara pounded her hands on the ground accidentally letting out some magic. A simple yet effective solution came to her; literally it just came to her out of the ground. She put both of her hands on the ground beneath and pushed out what little magic she had.

Vivian and Broderick had the upper hand and soon Jareth was stuck with nowhere to turn and no more tricks up his sleeve. The two evil fae smiled at each other before getting ready to send a final large blast at the Goblin King. A split second before the Goblin King was about to be zapped Vivian stopped and started coughing; Broderick stopped his spell as well and looked at his wife with concern. Vivian couldn't stop and Jareth took that chance to push them both back and get away, but he didn't get far. The three of them were now staring at the reason that Vivian was having trouble breathing.

Kiara kept sending her magic into the ground and was soon covered in vines that eventually smothered the flames and grew. Large purple and blue swirled flowers began to bloom all around her and she prayed that it would actually do some good; it was the one plant that made all creatures in the underground sick. Only a small bit of air was making its way into the center where she was, but she still kept it growing and growing.

Vivian looked at the large plant in horror as she continued to try to catch her breath; soon she couldn't stand it and ran as far as her legs would take her from the dreaded weed. Broderick followed her yelling to Jareth that it wasn't over and that he would get his kingdom. Jareth barely heard and kept watching as the plant continued to grow; soon even he couldn't bear to be close and had to fly up and wait for the spell to stop.

As soon as Kiara ran out of power the plant stopped growing and actually started to die as she passed out. After she was out for about fifteen minutes it was safe enough for Jareth to get closer to her; he made it rain so that most of the pollen would be washed off and he could carrying her back to her little cottage. He was just about to take off when one young fairy ran towards him holding a bag.

"Please your highness, don't be too angry with her. She laid this egg and I believe that she was frightened and needed help," Katrina said as she handed him the bag with the egg inside. Jareth nodded once and started flying away. He was extremely angry with her, but also relieved that she was alright now. He dropped her off in her own bed and made a small basket for the egg to stay warm. With a small sigh he headed back to his castle to get his anger out somewhere else.

The note Jareth found on his bed did not make his day any better at all. He quickly returned to Kiara's room and sat in a chair waiting for her to wake up. Dealing with these kinds of problems was not something Jareth was any good at and not something he wanted to get used to either. His mood continued to get worse as he realized that the rain he caused did not do a good enough job of cleaning Kiara of the pollen. It didn't seem to matter too much, because he still continued to sit there and stare at the letter from Tia. Part of him was happy that Tia was gone and that he didn't have to listen to her anymore or try to keep her happy; it was annoying and most of the time didn't seem worth it. The other half of him that he was trying to bury was heartbroken once again.


	22. Maya

A/N Own Nothing

Chapter 22 - Maya

Kiara sat up with a jolt of pain running through her back and wings. She slowly looked at where her beautiful wings used to be and almost cried when she saw that was only bone left. "It will grow back," said an angry voice from the side of her bed. Kiara looked surprised to see Jareth sitting there and she waited to hear him start to tell her how angry he was.

Jareth moved in closer trying to decide exactly what to say to this fairy, "Kiara you knew that people were after you so why would you leave the labyrinth by yourself?" Kiara jumped as Jareth continued his yelling rant noticing that his voice sounded terrible; she soon realized that the plant must have been near him as well and continued to keep quiet until he was done. "You put the whole labyrinth at risk when you could have just brought the egg to the castle or even have called a fairy through the mirror. It was also because of you that Tia is also now gone, another person that now wants you dead."

"I guess I am just as popular as you now," Kiara said jokingly in a small voice hoping that it would lighten Jareth's mood, but she only received a glare in response. "I'm sorry Jareth; I guess I didn't think."

"No, you didn't. You were right; you were a poor choice for a wife," Jareth said angrily as he left the house. Kiara wanted to call out to him, but didn't know what she could possibly say to make it better. Tears would have been streaming down her face if she had any tears left after the torture. She slowly got herself cleaned off and got back into her bed, determined to stay in her home until she died. In her mind she did much more harm than good to the labyrinth and it would be better if she just hid and for the next week that is exactly what she did. She didn't answer the door or any calls on the mirror; she just kept watch on the egg wondering when it would hatch and what she would do when it did.

During that week Jareth wandered around his castle feeling that awful guilty feeling he hated so much. He didn't really think Kiara was a bad choice, but he was so angry with her at the time. It had been a long time since he had a real friend and as much as he didn't want to admit to her that he enjoyed her company, he didn't want to lose her. He sent notice to the high council about Broderick and Vivian's constant attempts on his wife's life and he waited to hear back from them.

Kiara was outside weeding her front yard when a visitor came to her little cottage. She almost didn't want to let her in since she was trying to keep herself separate from the rest of the world; she didn't even let Didymus or Ludo visit anymore. This fae however was extremely insistent and Kiara finally gave in and offered the woman a drink which she declined.

"So you are Kiara and I am assuming that all of those scars, bruises and burns are from Broderick and Vivian," the fae asked.

Kiara looked at the fae curiously; she looked very familiar, "Sort of, the fairies were the ones who actually did it, but it was Broderick and Vivian that gave the orders."

The fae laughed, "Well naturally a fae wouldn't actually get involved in the dirty work."

"Yeah, naturally," Kiara responded as she rolled her eyes. The fae smiled at the little fairy and lightly touched her head. Kiara was confused at first, but found that all of her hair had grown back and her wings had completely healed. "How did you do that?"

"I am a healer, that's what I do. I am also a member of the high council and was sent here to find out if Jareth's story was true. I also couldn't help but wonder who it was that had my brother wrapped around her little finger."

Kiara looked up again at the fae and realized where she had seen her before; now that she knew she didn't know how she didn't see it before. "It wasn't me that had Jareth wrapped around her finger, it was Tia. I am just a burden that Jareth has to deal with."

Maya shook her head, "I know Jay and I know that you are someone special. He hasn't acted the same way towards anyone else since before Kenisha got married. Well I think I've found all I need to know and with any luck you won't be having any more troubles with Broderick and Vivian." Kiara looked confused so Maya continued, "I will try to make it so that you will be under the council's protection and any further attempts on your life will result in the loss of their powers."

"Wow, you can do that?" Maya nodded and left the little cottage, she headed straight back to the council to give her opinion on the recent events. Kiara stood at her door and watched as she turned into a crow and flew away. It was nice to know that even if Jareth wasn't very popular among the other fae that he still had friends in high places.

Kiara still remained in hiding until the day she heard a knock on her door and Hoggle calling her name. All thoughts of her vow to only interact with the population of the underground when absolutely necessary were temporarily abandoned as she raced to the door and hugged her little friend.

"Get off me," Hoggle yelled in his normal grumpy tone. Kiara laughed happy to see her friend back home and invited him into the house. "I hear lots have been going on while I was away."

Kiara nodded and slumped down on a chair, "Yeah, it turns out I am not good for the labyrinth. Broderick and Vivian tried to kill me to get Jareth to hand over the labyrinth and it almost worked too." Hoggle listened uncomfortably for a minute before deciding to change the subject.

"Rubina has decided to move to the labyrinth."

Kiara's sad mood suddenly changed upon hearing the news, "Really? Isn't your house a little on the small side though? This is great! Now I won't ever have to leave the labyrinth again."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get a few goblins to help expand my home so that there is a bit more room. When it's all done she'll come up and live here." Kiara and Hoggle spent a little while longer discussing the plans for the new house until he had to leave to start getting things in order. Kiara looked out at the castle wondering if Jareth would ever speak to her again and if she should even try.


	23. What If?

A/N Own Nothing. Thanks to notwritten without whom I probably would have not bothered to post anymore of this story

Chapter 23 – What if?

That night Kiara couldn't sleep so she pulled out a crystal ball to see if any of her friends were still awake. The only person that came through was Jareth, but he wasn't sitting on his balcony like he usually did when he was lonely, instead he was sitting in the royal courtyard in front of the statues of his parents. After debating with herself for several minutes she decided to see if he wanted any company. She stretched out her wings thankful that Maya had healed her and took off. The flight didn't take long and she soon landed a few feet behind Jareth.

"Your landings still need work," Jareth said without even turning around. Kiara nodded and sat down next to him glad that he wasn't yelling at her or telling her to leave him alone.

"Listen Jareth, I'm sorry I made Tia leave, but there is someone out there that would be much better for you than her," Kiara said slowly. She didn't want to make him angry, but she wanted him to see that Tia wasn't any good for him at all.

Jareth smirked slightly, "I know, I am the Goblin King and deserve only the very best." Kiara rolled her eyes at him as he used his better than everyone else tone.

"Do you think Maya can force Broderick and Vivian to stop trying to kill me?"

"Yes, I think she can and soon it will be safe for you to do as you please," Jareth answered as he looked at his mother's statue.

"That's good. So tell me Jay, do you have any other family members that you haven't mentioned to me?"

"Don't call me that," Jareth said with fake anger as he shook his head, "No just one brother and one sister."

"I'm not going to get a visit from your evil step-mother or something am I?" Jareth laughed slightly and shook his head once again. "Good, now let's just hope that your next consort isn't jealous that I exist."

Jareth sighed saying, "I don't think I am going to have another consort any time soon. Having someone else to be concerned about is just a waste of effort."

"Maybe someday there will be someone who you don't really mind going through all of that effort for. I know there a few people that I would do anything for. Isn't there anyone you feel that way about?" Jareth nodded without even thinking about it. "Really? Who? Kenisha?" Jareth nodded again starting to feel uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation. He tried to think of something to say to insult the fairy, but he wasn't really in the mood and so couldn't think of anything. "Well then I think I just proved there is a lot more to Jay than just being the Goblin King."

Jareth glared at the fairy and said once again, "Don't call me that and no there isn't, it's just there are few people that I don't hate."

"Am I still on that list?" Kiara asked quietly.

Jareth smirked and nodded as he put his arm around her, "I won't ever hate you. In retrospect it was a very clever idea that you came up with to get rid of Vivian and Broderick, I just wish that you didn't have to attack me at the same time."

Kiara leaned her head into Jareth and smiled having one more little question that she didn't really want to ask. She almost decided not to say anything at all until Jareth asked her what she was thinking so deeply about. "Do you think if I was turned into a fae instead of a fairy that things would be different or did you ever think about going back and changing everything now that you know about the moonstone? You have the power to alter time so why not go back those twenty years before anyone knows you lost your power and choose a new bride then?"

Jareth took a minute to consider her words, if had occurred to him to go back in time and change things; however abusing his time powers other than messing with runners could potentially put him in a lot of trouble with the high council and he already wasn't very much liked by most of them. "I never make a mistake so there is no need to ever alter the past." Kiara rolled her eyes at the fae and waited for a real answer. "If you want we can see what would have happened." Kiara thought about that and nodded while Jareth created a crystal ball and popped it on them. They were instantly transported into a different timeline and everything seemed to sparkle.

"Why does everything look like it's in a dream?" Kiara asked looking at the glitter in the trees.

"Because it isn't real, it's what might have been so let's go and see where we are," Jareth answered as they walked towards the castle. It was daytime there and the city was active, but no one noticed them passing through. They reached the castle and found Jareth in his throne room with a small child sitting in front of him with long blond hair. They watched for a few minutes and realized that they didn't see any signs of goblins anywhere in the castle and not only that but the place was perfectly clean. A small dainty woman came out of the side room and sat on Jareth's lap.

"Hmm, well it looks like you married Tia," Kiara said and she was sure she saw her Jareth shudder slightly. "That kid has got to be yours, look at that hair." Jareth nodded and continued to watch. "Where are all of the goblins?"

Jareth concentrated on seeing into the past of that timeline and answered, "Tia had the goblins removed from the castle as soon as she was made queen."

"Well what happened to me?" Kiara asked. Jareth transported them to the aboveground where they Kiara in the same mental institution that she had been in before. Vivian had once bound her powers and sent her back home leaving her no way to contact the labyrinth and no way to prove that if it had ever existed. She was locked up for babbling about a fake world that didn't exist. "No, please don't tell me I live here."

Jareth concentrated again, "You beat the labyrinth and I sent you home. You couldn't get back so you tried to kill yourself." Jareth was now very glad that he did not go back in time to change things. He knew the reason he would have sent Kiara home and bound her powers would be so that he didn't have to deal with his feelings for her and make Tia jealous. He was the reason she was stuck in a mental hospital.

"I guess that means Hoggle and Rubina don't find each other either; things only seemed to have gotten better for you if you go back. So why haven't you?" Jareth looked at the young fairy curiously as they transported back into their own time. "I thought you only cared about yourself, Goblin King."

"You would actually do that for me? Spend your life trapped in a room with no will to live?" Jareth asked not really believing what he heard.

Kiara nodded seriously, "Of course I'd expect that you better get Hoggle and Rubina together and make sure that Tia treats the goblins at least decently. In case you've forgotten Jareth I already told you this before. Remember when you made your final choice to make me your wife I was willing to go if you chose Tia? The same thing would have ended up happening to me if you chose her then."

Jareth stared at the little fairy wondering how she could be willing to make such a sacrifice so that he would be happy. Without thinking about what he was doing he pulled her in closer and kissed her. She was surprised to say the least but let it happen. "I made the right choice."

"Jareth, I don't…." Kiara wasn't sure how she felt about Jareth. Sure she loved him in a way, but she didn't know if they could be more than friends. Jareth nodded slightly feeling much the same way. He had strong feelings towards this girl, but he wasn't really sure what it was. He knew that he had loved Sarah, but this was completely different; whatever it was he didn't want it to go away. "But we have plenty of time to figure it out right? Anyway I have something more important to think about right now."

"What could possibly be more important than me?" Jareth asked with a smirk.

"I don't know, but how about the fact that there is an egg sitting in a little basket in my bedroom. What the hell am I going to do about that?" Kiara had spent a week wondering if she would instinctively know how to take care of a baby fairy and what would happen if it hatched when she wasn't home.

Jareth shrugged and thought for a minute, "You will be a good mother." The compliment made Kiara feel really good inside and she couldn't help but to smile and lean back into Jareth's arms. "Name him Jareth," she playfully smacked the Goblin King and he helped her up as the two started walking towards her cottage. They did have plenty of time to think about their relationship and for now just being together was enough.


	24. Noises

A/N Own Nothing

Chapter 24 - Noises

Time went by as it normally does and for awhile things seemed almost peaceful in the labyrinth. Jareth was happier than anyone had ever seen him, although he still kept up his cruel façade and daily routines of kicking his goblins and terrorizing runners. Rubina and Hoggle were living in his house which was now about twice the size it was months before; Hoggle continued his job as the labyrinth's general maintenance man and Rubina began to work in the castle's kitchen. Kiara spent her days with her friends enjoying the labyrinth although wishing at the same time that she would hear something from Jareth about whether or not she was allowed to ever leave the kingdom again.

It had been months since anyone in the labyrinth heard or seen from Vivian or Broderick and Kiara was incredibly relieved. She knew that they couldn't actually step back into the kingdom, but that didn't stop them from using someone else to get her. For now she was content since she still had not explored the entire labyrinth and had a lot of different creatures to get to know.

Didymus and Kiara were both outside of her cottage playing a game of scrabble when Didymus heard a strange noise. "My lady, is there something in your house?" Kiara listened for a minute and shook her head; she didn't hear anything.

"Now don't go trying that to distract me, I will beat you this time," she said playfully as she spelled out her word. Didymus was a scrabble champion, but Kiara wouldn't give up the game without a fight. "There I think I am winning now," she said with a grin; she had him this round. Didymus smirked slightly and used all of his letters on his next turn; he was just about to comment on his victory when he heard the noise again. He was sure he just heard something break.

"My lady, I believe that something just broke inside of your bedroom." Kiara looked confused, but decided that this time it wasn't a diversion to get make her lose her focus. She trusted the ears of her friend and stayed a few steps behind him while they entered the house to find the source of the noise hoping that it was just a little mouse or something. Slowly he opened the door to the bedroom and carefully looked around sniffing every few seconds. Kiara didn't see anything out of place, but she did hear the loud wail that just started coming from the corner of the room.

After getting over the shock at the sudden noise the two looked at the little basket of blankets sitting in the corner of the room. Inside the basket was the egg she had laid and almost had forgotten about. The egg shook violently and a small crack appeared followed by another loud wailing noise. "Is it stuck?" Kiara asked Didymus who merely shrugged but never moved his eyes from the shaking egg.

There was only one person Kiara knew could help her and she ran to her vanity table to call to her, "Katrina, Katrina are you there?" A sleepy fairy looked out of the mirror back at her and raised an eyebrow wondering what was going on. "Hi, the egg is shaking and crying; what do I do?" Katrina occasionally spoke to Kiara, but usually kept it short for fear that the other woodland fairies she lived with would find out that she was going against Prince Broderick's wishes.

The fairy held back a yawn and tried to see past Kiara at the egg; after watching it move for a minute or two she answered, "If it doesn't get itself out in about five minutes or so just gently hit the side of it to help break the shell. It'll be fine." The mirror went blank and even though she didn't say much Kiara felt much better; if a full blood, underground born fairy wasn't very concerned then she shouldn't be either. On the other hand she was about to become a mother and she didn't know the first thing about fairy children.

The egg shook again and a small pudgy hand pushed its way out of the egg. The wail was louder now as the tiny fist shook trying to make more room in the hole. Kiara couldn't take much more of the waiting and crept closer to help the little one out. She tentatively put her fingers above the hole and tapped lightly at first then a bit harder until more of the egg started to crack. She continued the process around the whole egg until she noticed that it stopped crying and stopped moving. Worried that she had hurt the little fairy she stopped and hugged herself waiting. Didymus continued to watch in fascination not really knowing what to do either.

After a minute of complete silence the little fist moved again, punching several more holes along the cracks that Kiara had made. Soon Kiara was able to see little eyes peek out of one of the holes almost as if trying to decide if it was safe to come out. The little one gave one last push with both hands and the entire top of the shell broke off of her, falling to the floor. Kiara almost couldn't believe what she saw; the little baby looked like an eighteen month old human child which a few exceptions. The hair was dark black, obviously from her father's side, with streaks of emerald green. Its eyes were exactly like Kiara's down to the little yellow circle around the pupils and on her back were two small bumps which Kiara assumed would one day grow into wings.

"Congratulations my lady, it is a beautiful little girl," Didymus said with a smile. He had never witnessed a birth before and felt honored to be there while his Queen's egg hatched. Kiara nodded dumbly just staring at the small child in the basket.

"She'll need clothes, food, diapers and toys. I need to get aboveground," Kiara said starting to sound panicked. "Didymus will you watch her for me?" The small dog glanced up at the fairy with an unhappy look but refused to ever say no to his queen. "Never mind don't worry about it. I think I know a great babysitter anyway, if he'll take her." She hurriedly wrapped up the child in the blankets and started to head out the door, but the little fairy began to wail again this time more urgently. "What? What's the matter?"

"Perhaps the young one is hungry?" Didymus suggested before he left the house. Kiara searched her kitchen for something portable to take with her to the castle and was happy to find that she actually had some regular Cheerios. Jareth liked them so she always tried to keep a stock whenever she remembered to buy them. She offered one to the child hoping that she was like most human children who all seemed to love cereal. The baby took it slowly putting in her mouth and Kiara saw that she had very tiny fangs. She giggled slightly at how adorable they were and was happy to see that the baby was trying to reach for another Cheerio. She held up the cup for her as they walked and she tried to think of how she was going to convince Jareth to babysit.


	25. Little Fairy

A/N Own Nothing, Xatan - I will continue the story and try to post every day if I can until its complete :)

Chapter 25 – Little Fairy

Jareth had recently come home from a trip to the Enchanted Forest which is not as great a place as most people would think. Kiara had never been there, but Jareth told her about it before he left. It was a very small bit of land, from the outside; you could walk around the forest in maybe two hours however once you got inside you could walk straight for a day and only be halfway through. It was run by a Fae that was also a seer and from Jareth's explanation Kiara was glad that she did not have the ability to see the future. Seers in the underworld have very little control over what and when they are seeing and so most go mad not knowing when they are in the present. This Fae had slightly more control now that she was older, but still was mad as a hatter and loved to play games with visitors to her forest. In that respect Jareth liked her, but he didn't like that she didn't care if it was another fae visiting or an ant.

Kiara wasn't told what had happened while he was there, but when Jareth came back he was soaked and sick. He locked himself in his room only coming out when necessary. She was running up the steps of the castle now barely noticing that the little fairy was watching her carefully. She gave her a reassuring smile and continued towards Jareth's bedroom only to be stopped by a female goblin who told her that Jareth was in the throne room. She backtracked and was slightly surprised at the lack of noise coming from the room. Jareth was sitting in his throne reading reports that the elves wrote up for him.

"Jareth, I need your help," Kiara said holding her daughter more tightly as she waited for a response from the Goblin King. He looked up slightly annoyed at being interrupted but then an amused smirk appeared as he saw the child.

"What a coincidence I was going to send for you soon. We need to make a visit to the high council, they have some news for us," Jareth responded as he went back to reading. His voice sounded terrible, but at least he was acting like his normal self.

Kiara sighed and sent a wind to blow the papers out of Jareth's hands. This only annoyed him further, but now he couldn't ignore her as easily. "Jareth, the baby just came out of her shell and I need you to watch her for a few hours while I go aboveground and get her something to wear and eat."

"Can't the goblins make her some clothes and there is food down here you know."

"Please Jareth."

Jareth rolled his eyes and massaged his forehead, he had just managed to get rid of the goblins for a few hours so that he could get rid of his headache and then Kiara brought him a baby. "Give it to a goblin." Kiara started to look annoyed now and Jareth almost laughed at her, "I don't know why you don't trust them with children; that's all they are really good at is watching them."

"Will you at least stay in the same room? I'll owe you." Jareth's trademark smirk grew as he plotted some evil payback and nodded. Kiara thanked him and handed the little baby over to the king and went to transport herself, however as soon as she let go of the baby she began to cry and Jareth's temper almost snapped. Kiara knelt down in front of her and tried to calm her down promising to be right back. The little fairy seemed to understand and the crying slowed down to a quiet stream of tears accompanied by an adorable pout. With a small smile Kiara forced herself to stop looking at the cute baby and disappeared to the aboveground.

As soon as Kiara was out of sight Jareth looked at the little one and said to her, "I hope you like goblins because you are going to be surrounded by them in a minute." He called out to his underlings and soon about six appeared ready to take the child and entertain it for awhile. Jareth collected his papers and sat down at the window while he read through them only casting an occasional glance at the child who seemed happy enough. She was trying to get the goblins to taste her Cheerios, but none of them seemed to care for it and of course she wanted the ale that they were drinking, but they were smart enough to know that there were some things that little ones should not have. Jareth shook his head as he chuckled to himself; he used to have his doubts about the goblins caretaking abilities too until one day when he finally realized that they did have children of their own so they must be somewhat responsible even if they seem completely brainless.

He continued to peek out over his paper partially wishing that the child wasn't Gannon's. Kiara had sent him a letter wishing him and his new wife well and telling him about the egg that was obviously his. She had expected him to at least visit her, but instead he sent back his own letter apologizing for not coming and telling Kiara about his wife himself and letting her know that he had no interest in caring for the egg unless she really needed him too. Kiara decided that it was better off that he didn't care since he lived so far away; she really didn't want to have to pass the child back and forth between them for god knows how many years.

The child had many of Gannon's features, but Jareth could already sense something in her that was just like her mother already. He could see in her eyes a certain stubbornness and smiled to himself. Even if he wasn't this child's father he definitely wanted to be around to see what kind of hell the girl was going to put her mother through. With a sigh he attempted to go back to reading, but his thoughts kept straying to the future and if he would ever have an heir. He shrugged it off and sat down in front of the little girl who eyed him suspiciously and shyly hid behind a goblin. The goblins began pushing her out from behind and soon she was standing in front of Jareth still trying to decide if she liked him. "Little one, I am Jareth, can you say that?"

She looked a little confused, but clapped happily as he began to spin crystals for her. She watched in amazement as the rainbow colors reflected off of them and laughed deciding that Jareth was alright. She sat in his lap and said her first word, "Jawit."

"Close enough, for now," he sighed and continued to spin the crystals. At the very least it was calming for him and kept her and the goblins quiet.


	26. High Council

A/N Own Nothing

Chapter 26 – High Council

Kiara arrived back in the underground with more bags than she could ever carry. She said a silent thank you to whatever god gave her the power to instantly transport to the underground. The first thing she bought was furniture and she had it sent down with a request for Hoggle to put it together if he had a chance. She was happy to see when she arrived home that the bed and dresser were already set up in a small room that she had been using as a walk-in closet. For now the room was good enough for the baby to sleep in, but she would have to ask the goblins to enlarge it sometime.

She called Jareth through the mirror to let him know she was home and sooner than she could blink Jareth and the baby were already in the room with her. The baby clapped her hands at the trick and held her arms out to Kiara who was surprised that the baby knew who she was. Jareth looked at all of the bags and raised an eyebrow at the two fairies, "A child really needs all of this?"

"Of course she does," Kiara answered finding a small stuffed cat in one of the bags and handing it to the little girl. The baby fairy's eyes lit up with excitement as she hugged the cat to her chest and laid her head down on Kiara's shoulder. The goblins had dressed the child in a simple brown dress and a cloth diaper making her look like a perfect servant in the underground. Kiara immediately found some aboveground clothes and changed her into a purple top and little jeans. "There that is much better. Jareth, do you know when her wings will grow in?"

Jareth shook his head not really knowing much about any babies other then how to entertain them for a few hours. "She said her first word though," he said looking proud and at the same time evil. Kiara eyed him suspiciously wonder what he taught her little girl. He looked down at the baby asking her to say his name.

"Jawit," the baby responded and was please to get a happy response from both adults.

Kiara laughed and playfully smacked the Goblin King, "You are too full of yourself."

Jareth smirked and changed the topic, "Well now that you have had your shopping fun maxing out my credit card you can get yourself ready to come with me to the high council."

"I guess I need another babysitter," Kiara said sadly. She was really nervous about having a child, but at the same time she wanted to be with her.

Jareth shrugged, "Bring her, maybe they'll be more sympathetic now that you are a mother even though you both are just fairies." Kiara would have gotten mad and argued with Jareth, but he was right. In the underground anyone who wasn't fae just wasn't really important; however she was the goblin queen and that did elevate her just a tiny bit above the rest of the nobodies. She waited while Jareth put his arm around her instantly transporting the three of them to just outside of the building where the high council was meeting.

Kiara looked at Jareth a little worried; she remembered from experience that instant transportation in the underground took a lot of magic; that combined with the fact that Jareth was sick and already instantly transported himself to her cottage made him look like he was going to fall over. "Why don't we sit for awhile and play with her?" Kiara suggested as she got herself comfortable on the grass. Jareth soon followed her example with his back up against the wall. Kiara took that time to take a good look at the building; it wasn't anything like she thought it would be. It was a just a solid white stone building; not at all what she was used to in the labyrinth.

The baby fairy started chasing little fairies that were making their nests on flowers, she kept trying to catch one until it bit her and she ran back to Kiara crying and holding out her finger. Kiara kissed the bite and rocked the little fairy until she was done crying and ready to run around some more. Jareth was almost fully recovered when they heard someone coming towards them.

"Jay is that adorable fairy child yours?" the person asked and Kiara squinted in the light to see who was coming.

"No, it is Kiara's child," Jareth answered standing up to greet the woman. Soon she was close enough and Kiara could see that it was Maya, Jareth's sister. She wasn't sure, but she thought that Maya actually looked relieved when Jareth said it wasn't his child. She started to get angry, but the little fairy was tugging at her pant legs wanting to be held. She picked up her daughter and walked over to the fae siblings with a fake smile.

"She is cute," Maya said and then turned back to Jareth. She would be civil to Kiara, but the fact that she was just a fairy bothered her more than she would let on. Even the baby could sense that Maya didn't like her and wanted to leave. She tugged at Jareth's jacket calling his name. He ignored her and waited for Maya to tell him some hopefully good news.

"When do we meet with the high council?"

Maya shook her head, "You won't be meeting with them. No one in the council really likes you and your temper wouldn't have helped; however I have convinced them to put Kiara under their protection temporarily. It won't last long."

"Temporarily? Do they want to see me dead?" Jareth yelled scaring the baby.

"This is exactly why I did this without you and yes most of the council wouldn't really care if you were dead except for the fact that they don't trust Broderick or Vivian to run a kingdom either. The child might actually help your case though. I might be able to convince them to extend the protection because she is a new mother, but if you want more than that you are going to have an heir of your own."

"What?" Jareth and Kiara both asked.

"Jay, if you have a heir and assign Kiara to be a primary caregiver then the council will have to keep her under protection at least for a bit longer. They don't want to see fae children harmed mentally or physically. What do you think? It might work."

Jareth didn't look happy and sent a small glance back at Kiara hoping that she would have a suggestion. "I really don't want to have to go through having another consort, who would want to anyway?" Kiara kept quiet knowing full well that Jareth didn't want to get into another relationship anytime soon. Jareth had told her before that an heir had to be at least half fae and that only ever happened once before and she didn't live very long.

Maya looked serious for a minute before a playful smile appeared on her face, "I know the perfect woman." She smiled brightly and looked at Jareth hoping that he would know who she was talking about. He looked confused for a second, but then started shaking his head.

"Absolutely not."

"Who?" Kiara asked, but no one listened to her.

"Why not?" Maya asked putting her hands on her hips. "What's wrong with her?"

"She is just as bad as those things she lives with."

"Is not and anyway you only need her to produce an heir, once that is done you can send her away. At the very least she will stay out of your way and not bug you like Princess Tia."

Jareth was still shaking his head, "Just because she can't speak doesn't mean she won't annoy me."

Maya screamed in frustration, "Everyone annoys you; that I can't change and yes she can speak."

Jareth and Maya stared at each other for a long until Jareth finally conceded, "Fine, have her drop by the castle and we'll see how it goes." In the end Jareth decided that having another consort and maybe at least trying for an heir would help keep Kiara protected.

Maya smiled cheerfully having won the battle and asked one last question, "One last thing, what's the child's name?" Jareth looked at Kiara who didn't answer. "She has a name doesn't she?"

"Well, I haven't really thought about it yet," Kiara said slowly as she went through a bunch of possible names in her head. Maya began to get impatient until finally Kiara had an answer, "Raven." Maya obviously didn't like it but nodded and walked away into the building.


	27. New Consort Arrives

A/N Own Nothing Thanks to my beta and to Notwritten for being a loyal reviewer

Chapter 27 – New Consort Arrives

Jareth didn't give Kiara any time to ask any questions before instantly transporting the three of them back into Kiara's cottage. He sat himself down at her kitchen table and looked at her expectantly and she knew that meant he wanted something to eat. She put Raven down on the floor giving her some toys to play with and got started on cooking dinner.

"So who will be your new consort?" Kiara asked hoping that Jareth would be in the mood to answer. She couldn't help feeling jealous again, but since they kissed the one time they never spoke about their relationship and it really didn't seem to be going anywhere. She wasn't even completely sure she wanted it too.

Jareth leaned back in the chair and propped his legs up on another one as he answered, "Celestia, she used to be partners with Maya when she was training to become a healer."

"Uh-huh, and what is she like?"

"No personality, no sense of humor and is completely depressing; on the bright side she doesn't speak much at all."

Kiara thought about that while she cooked some steak for Jareth and chicken nuggets for Raven. While she thought and cooked she moved the highchair she bought next to Jareth and put the baby in it. "Who are the creatures you say she hangs around with? And you know you aren't one to talk right, no other fae likes the goblins."

Jareth nodded while spinning crystals for Raven and answered, "She isn't really royalty, but her cousin is Queen of the Dark Forest and gave her a little section to call her own. In other words the section she didn't want to deal with which are the vampire caves."

"Vampires?" Kiara asked with a smirk and laughed remembering how she thought she was turning into a vampire when her fangs started growing. It was the one creature of the underground that she actually knew almost everything about since she read a book about them to prepare herself for what she thought she was going to have to deal with.

"Yes, her servant is a vampire as well." Jareth stopped spinning the crystals and thought for a minute before Kiara served him dinner. When he was talking to Maya the thought had occurred to Jareth that Kiara could potentially give him an heir if she was willing, but he wasn't sure he wanted to ask her that and he didn't want to hear her say no.

"Well that's exciting, I would love to meet a vampire," Kiara said excitedly. Raven looked at the chicken nugget unsure of what it was until she saw her mother take a bite. She tasted it slowly deciding that it was good and happily ate the rest.

Jareth shook his head at the fairy not really understanding why she found everything in the underground so fascinating. He finished eating quickly and got up to leave, "I will let you know when they arrive." As he started walking away Raven began to cry and reach for him.

"Jawit!" He shook his head again hiding a small smile and continued out the door. Raven continued to call his name and cry until Kiara put the stuffed kitty back in her hands.

"Can you say kitty?"

"Kitty," Raven responded loving the praise and attention that came shortly after.

Kiara clapped her hands at her little girl, "Can you say mommy?"

"Mommy," she repeated.

"Good girl," Kiara said as she hugged the little fairy, "You and I are going to have a lot of fun tonight. I bought you lots of clothes and toys today, so let's go see what your step-daddy paid for."

Raven looked up at her mother obviously confused by the word step-daddy. Kiara was impressed that she understood anything at all, but then again she didn't know a thing about fairy children. "Tep-daddy?"

Kiara laughed and nodded putting Raven on the floor of her new room in front of all the bags. The two started going through them as she started to answer, "Yeah Raven, I guess Jareth would be your step-dad since we are married. Your real father is a dark fairy named Gannon and lives far away so you won't get to see much of him, but Jareth has lots of goblins for you to play with." She started to laugh at herself wondering why she would expect a child that was not even a day old to understand, but Raven looked like she was actually thinking about it.

"Gannon daddy, Jawit daddy too?"

She smiled proudly at the little one and tickled her, "Yeah, you are going to be full of surprises aren't you?" Raven nodded as she pulled out a little play tiara and put it on her head. "You should wear that the next time we go to the castle."

Soon the young fairy was starting to get sleepy and Kiara put her in the little bed and covered her up. The little girl went to sleep almost instantly and Kiara spent the rest of her evening finding a place for all the things she had bought. As she drifted off to sleep in her own bed she wondered if she would ever have been this happy if she still lived aboveground.

A messenger came in the middle of the afternoon the next day while Kiara and Raven were visiting with Rubina and Hoggle. The girls chatted under an umbrella while Hoggle chased the toddler around pretending to be angry about something. Raven squealed as she ran and hid in different bushes and flower patches hoping that Hoggle would have a hard time finding her. The goblin came around to the backyard and delivered the message that Lady Celestia and her servant Shar'i had arrived and that Kiara was wanted at the castle.

"Come on Raven, it's time to go and see Jareth," Kiara said bending over to pick up the little girl.

"Fwy!" Raven said as she pet Kiara's wings, "Fwy!" Kiara looked a little nervous but held on to her daughter with one hand and her cat in the other and started flying towards the castle staying much lower to the ground than she normally would have. Raven kept very still and watched in amazement as the land quickly passed beneath them and in no time at all they arrived at the castle doors. Raven struggled to get down and ran in the door trying to figure out where to go. Kiara smiled at her and started walking in the right direction happy to see that the little fairy followed. When they reached the throne room Raven took no notice of the other people in the room, she ran towards Jareth screaming, "Daddy!" The other fae looked down at the young fairy with disgust, but didn't say anything.

Jareth picked up the little fairy and sat her on his lap as he continued his discussion with the fae woman. "I would like you to meet my servant fairy and Queen of the Goblins, Kiara," he said as he indicated towards the fairy still standing in the doorway.


	28. Vampire

A/N Own Nothing

Chapter 28 - Vampire

The fae woman turned and looked at Kiara giving her a small nod; Kiara nodded back assuming the woman must be Celestia and she wasn't really sure what to think about her. Her skin was so pale almost like ivory and she was bone thin with sharp features. Kiara couldn't decide if she was attractive, but her looks definitely stood out. Behind the fae was a cloaked figure not showing an inch of skin, Kiara figured that it must be the vampire servant that Celestia brought with her.

Raven was getting annoyed at the lack of attention and stood on Jareth's lap yelling in his ear, "Daddy! Pway wit me." She shoved her cat into his face and he took it from her trying not to look annoyed. He called for one of his goblins to take Celestia to her chambers and she followed it leaving the vampire behind. "Daddy," Raven called one more time impatiently.

"I am not your father, stop calling me that," Jareth yelled at the little girl and surprising Kiara who was about to yell at Jareth before Raven did it for her. She stuck out her lower lip and glared into Jareth's eyes.

"Yes, Jawit daddy." She said it with such a stubborn look that it actually made Jareth laugh. He was being stared down by a tiny fairy child.

"Fine, but call me Jareth." Raven thought about that and nodded hopping off of him to play with a goblin.

"What don't you want to be her daddy?" Kiara asked. Jareth sent a glance up at her and shook his head, it didn't mean no, but it did mean that he didn't want to talk about it. He actually was really happy that she called him that, but at the same time being a father scared him more than he thought it could and he didn't want a reminder that he was really going to be one soon if everything worked out. Kiara turned to the hooded figure still standing in the same spot not moving at all, "What's your name?"

"Shar'i," the figure responded.

"Well Shar'i do you want to see where you'll be staying?" The figure nodded and followed Kiara out the door. Kiara took a quick look back at Raven who was busy playing with goblin. She assured herself that her daughter would be fine and led the way to one of the guest rooms near to Celestia's.

They entered the room and Shar'i was happy to see that it was a room with thick dark curtains. Kiara began closing them and soon it was completely dark in the room with the exception of a lamp on the vanity table. Shar'i lowered her hood and smiled slightly at the fairy. She was surprisingly beautiful with long dark green hair and purple streaks.

"I've wanted to meet a vampire ever since I came to the labyrinth. When I got my fangs that's what I thought I was turning into," Kiara said sitting in a chair and motioning for Shar'i to sit as well. She took a seat uncertain if she was to treat Kiara like a queen or a servant so she said nothing. "So tell me, do you like being a vampire?"

Shar'i smirked slightly and started to answer, "It's not as bad as most people aboveground think, especially since most of the aboveground rules don't apply down here."

"Yeah, I've read that underground you don't actually burn up in the sun."

"No, but it is uncomfortable and a big drain on our energy. We are much stronger at night, although I could go without the blood lust," Shar'i responded glad to hear that there was someone that wasn't completely ignorant about vampires. Most of the creatures in the labyrinth believed in aboveground legends and it annoyed most of the vampires, especially the one about garlic and all vampires being OCD.

Kiara's eyes widened and she moved a little closer as she asked, "What's it like?"

Shar'i was shocked, that was one question that no one had ever asked her before. Usually people didn't ask about the blood drinking, although most vampires usually scared any non-vampires away anyway so it didn't normally come to that. "Like an addiction, you smell it or see it and suddenly you need it, but most of us have control."

"Where are you going to hunt while you are here?"

"In the forest behind the castle there are some animals that will do and don't worry they won't feel a thing and I will leave them with plenty of blood to survive; however if something else decides to eat the rest of it after I'm done then I can't really help that." Shar'i expected the fairy to be grossed out like most of the females she'd met, but instead she kept moving closer more and more interested.

"Well I don't want to bother you too much, so I'll let you get settled in, but if you have free time I will be around and I live in the first cottage on the path outside of the Goblin City so drop in anytime." Kiara got up and left the room leaving a still shocked vampire behind. She found her daughter sitting with Jareth trying to get him to throw her up in the air again. "Raven, come on, it's time to go home. You can play with Jareth another day." The little fairy pouted but waved to the Goblin King and the goblins she was playing with and waited to be picked up. Kiara held her tight and took a deep breath as she jumped out the window, soaring down to her cottage. Raven giggled in her arms, but kept still.

About a week passed by and Kiara found a familiar visitor on her couch one morning, however instead of reading a book he was trying to figure out what Raven wanted him to do with the strange doll she gave him. "It's a Barbie," Kiara said, "You make it talk and walk and whatever." Jareth looked a little confused but shrugged and waved his hand over the doll making it able to move on its own. Raven clapped happily and waved her own doll around. Satisfied that he gave the child what he wanted he got up and sat back down at the breakfast table.

"The vampire will be coming over this evening; Celestia believes she is lonely without her fellow blood drinkers," Jareth said as he made himself more comfortable.

"How is it going with Celestia? I am used to you coming here when things are bad so it kind of worries me that you are here."

"That's not the reason I visit; your home used to be quiet until the little one was born," Jareth responded happy with the glare he got in return. She still didn't know that he often came when he couldn't sleep and he was going to keep it that way. "Anyway everything is fine, she stays in her room or in the gardens, doesn't speak to me unless I ask her something and she doesn't try to change anything."

"Sounds like your perfect match," Kiara said jokingly, but the look on Jareth's face showed that he wasn't very happy. "You know you don't have to have an heir with her if you don't like her."

He ignored the question and instead demanded, "Where is breakfast?" Kiara shook her head slightly annoyed and started cooking some eggs. When they were done she left them for him and took Raven outside to play. She knew that he would mostly likely leave when he was done or hang around and read, but was surprised to find that he followed her out and spent about a half hour or so just watching the two play together.

Raven noticed that Jareth wasn't having fun with them and pulled at his pant leg until he followed her over to where Kiara was sitting. "Jawit pway," She said making him sit down on the ground, he rolled his eyes at her but she didn't notice and handed him the stuffed cat which he immediately made dance around on its own. He stayed for a few more minutes before getting up to leave. Kiara watched as he tried to resist the cute little pout she put on, but as soon as he was gone she found someone new to play with. Ludo was coming by for a visit.


	29. Bloodlust

A/N Own Nothing

Chapter 29 - Bloodlust

Kiara hoped that Raven wouldn't be afraid of the large beast, but it seemed that this little fairy didn't know what fear was. She ran up to him and waved showing him the cat. As the two walked back over to Kiara Raven continued to tell Ludo a bunch of thing about the cat, but neither of them understood a word of it. Ludo took the cat from her and petted it before returning it to the toddler. She laughed and squealed as he picked her up and held her up high. "Mommy!" she called and Kiara nodded and smiled at her little girl. The three played together until it started to get dark. Kiara took her down to Hoggle's house and asked him to watch her while the vampire came for a visit. At first Hoggle was about to grumble and say no, but Rubina pushed him out of the way and took the little fairy.

It wasn't long after the sun was completely set that Kiara saw a hooded figure slowly walking toward her cottage. She squinted to see in the dark, but her night vision wasn't quite as good as other fairies yet. The vampire saw her and with a quick motion was suddenly right in front of her. Kiara let out a shocked yelled and almost fell backwards, but a strong hand grabbed her. The vampire began to chuckle as she pulled off her hood and smiled at the startled fairy. "I thought most vampires don't have a sense of humor," Kiara said trying to hide her amazement at how fast she was.

Shar'i laughed as she shook her head, "Your right, most don't. When people get changed into a vampire most of whomever they were dies with the body. On the other hand, those of us who were born vampires don't lose anything."

Kiara looked at the vampire curiously; she had read that it was extremely rare for vampires to mate at all. Sex between a vampire and a human was supposedly the greatest thing in the world, but between two vampires it was nothing special. Add that to the fact that the vampires in the underground almost never get excited about anything or have much interested in doing anything except hunting and a you get a population of vampires where almost every since one has technically died. "You were born a vampire?" Kiara asked. Shar'i nodded and Kiara wondered if she should be more or less afraid of her because of that. Since she acted like a normal person it would be easy to forget that she could snap her neck between two fingers, at least she could during the night.

The two walked and talked through the labyrinth until well after midnight when Shar'i decided that she needed to go and hunt. A fairy's blood was the hardest type to resist, a human's was a distant second and it was hard enough for any vampire to resist that when venturing aboveground. Kiara decided to leave Raven with her dwarven friends for the night, not wishing to wake them and have a grumpy baby and a grumpy dwarf on her hands.

Back in the castle Jareth and Celestia were getting to know each other very well in the bedroom and it was a nice surprise for Jareth that although Celestia acted like a vampire most of the time, in the bedroom she showed full emotion and enthusiasm. Jareth leaned up against the back of the bed while his consort slept at his side and thought that it might not be so bad after all. Maybe Celestia would stay with him even after they had a child, he wouldn't mind so much since she was a very easy person to deal with. The only thing that was missing was the fact that she very rarely spoke which came as a surprise to Jareth that he actually was wishing that she would at least a little.

Shar'i and Kiara ended up spending a lot of time together when Celestia didn't need her servant girl. Shar'i was happy enough to finally find a friend that wasn't afraid of her and didn't have the personality of a rock. They spent one night out hiking in one of the forests behind the castle looking for a unicorn that Shar'i had seen the night before. There wasn't a trail of any kind so it was slow going for the fairy, but like most vampires Shar'i was patient and waited for her to catch up.

"Don't you have to be a virgin for a unicorn to show itself?" Kiara asked as she untangled her shirt from the bushes. She was starting to get irritated at her inability to see all of the obstacles in her way. Shar'i shook her head and continued walking through the brambles with ease; she knew it had to be close, she could smell it. While Kiara was trying to get herself through yet another plant that caught onto her clothing, Shar'i slowly scanned through the woods looking for any signs that it had passed through that area. She sighed almost ready to call it a night when another strong scent hit her.

Kiara had gotten her leg tangled in some of the brambles and attempted to use magic to push it off; however it only made things worse by making the plant pull at her leg causing her slip and fall. A sharp edge of a rock on the ground sliced into her arm and to make matters worse she was still stuck. "Shit, I'm covered in mud now. Shar'i, can you help me?" she asked looking up at her new friend. She was surprised to see Shar'i was standing completely still staring at the gash on her arm, her eyes were widening and her fangs were exposed. "Shit." Kiara kicked away what she could and tried to run away from the vampire but was nowhere near fast enough. Shar'i was instantly in front of her and had a hold of her arm. Before she could think her back was pushed up against a tree and the vampire's mouth was hovering over her cut. "I thought you had some control."

Slowly Shar'i eyes came more into focus as she looked at the fairy and with a flash she was gone. Kiara dropped to the ground breathing heavy and feeling relieved. She knew that the vampire wouldn't hurt her on purpose but it was a risk she knew she was taking every time she spent the evening with her. As soon as she was calm she got off of the ground and started heading to the castle. Her instincts told her to try to move as slowly and as quietly as possible, but her head knew it wouldn't matter. She was bleeding and even if she made absolutely no noise the vampire could easily find her.

Thankfully she made it back to the castle without the vampire coming back for her. She checked on the goblins that were taking care of Raven and found them all asleep in a big pile on the floor. Shaking her head she continued to her own bedroom that she rarely used and took a long bath thanking whoever put a spell on all of the tubs to always be the perfect temperature with just the right amount of bubbles and the perfect scent. After she finished drying herself off she found herself completely awake so she started mindlessly exploring the castle until she ran into Jareth at the entrance to the Escher Room. She wouldn't have gone in if she didn't see him go in a second before.

"Don't you ever sleep?" Kiara asked teasingly as she came up behind Jareth. He turned and smirked at her as he looked over her night wear.

"Don't you ever wear female clothing to bed?" he asked still examining the oversized t-shirt and flannel pajama pants. It was only a second before he noticed the long scratch on her arm, but he looked away not wanting to act like he cared. Kiara noticed him staring and rolled her eyes.

"I fell on a rock in woods, Mr. Over-Protective. Shar'i was going to show me a unicorn, but obviously after I cut myself she didn't hang around."

Jareth turned back to her with slight anger in his eyes, "That blood-sucker was with you? You realize she could have easily turned you into a midnight snack."

Kiara stood with her hands on her hips and glared back at Jareth, "Enough with the rude comments about Shar'i, she is my friend. Anyway like I said she left afterwards so everything was fine, although I am disappointed I didn't get to see the unicorn. I bet there are a lot in the enchanted forest." Jareth nodded and turned his attention slightly away from the fairy. "Well then I guess you can take me there tomorrow so I can see one. Thanks." She started to walk away before Jareth grabbed her wrist pulling her back.

"I didn't agree to take you to the forest; I am not going back there if I don't have to."

"Well now you have to. It will be fun and Raven will love it." Kiara smiled and left Jareth standing by himself trying to figure out why he just let the little fairy win the argument. He laughed at himself and shook his head; he wasn't going to take her.


	30. Enchanted Forest

A/N Own Nothing Thanks to my beta and notwritten for being a loyal reviewer

Chapter 30 – Enchanted Forest

Raven and Kiara decided to spend the next morning in the castle since Raven wanted to stay with the goblins and play. It wasn't until lunchtime that Kiara was able to get her away for a bit so that she could have something to eat. The two of them joined Jareth and Celestia in the dining room where Shar'i was serving the food and staying as far away as possible from Kiara.

"So Jareth, after lunch will you take me and Raven to the enchanted forest?" Kiara asked as sweetly as possible.

"No," Jareth answered ignoring the baby fairy's pout. An argument between the king and queen ensued while Celestia just watched curiously. She couldn't understand why Jareth let this insignificant creature speak let alone argue with him. Shar'i's curiosity got the better of her and she came out to watch the two of them battle it out.

"Fine, Shar'i will you accompany me to the enchanted forest?" Kiara asked looking over at the snickering vampire.

Jareth glanced over with fierce eyes, "Absolutely not is that thing going anywhere with you alone."

"You do not trust my servant?" Celestia asked quietly speaking for the first time in front of Kiara.

"Uh, she is a vampire and Kiara is a fairy," Jareth answered wondering when he suddenly became outnumbered.

"Well we are going anyway. She can be my protection against whatever is out there," Kiara said with a grin knowing that she had won and Jareth couldn't do anything to stop her anyway. Jareth looked pissed but didn't respond. They finished up lunch and made their way out of the castle to start the journey.

Shar'i looked a bit uncomfortable as she pulled her hood up and made sure she was completely covered. "Listen, I am sorry about last night."

"Don't worry about it; just keep me safe from whatever the enchanted forest is going to send at us once we get in there," Kiara responded as she took off with Raven securely wrapped in her arms. Shar'i went flying after them and Kiara couldn't help but laugh at the way she looked when she was flying; her body stayed in a standing position as if she was still on the ground and somehow her body just went in the right direction. "That just looks weird and kind of eerie."

Kiara couldn't see Shar'i smirk from under her hood as she replied, "I think it's meant to be."

The two continued the journey towards the enchanted forest stopping twice so that Kiara could rest her wings. Once they reached the edge Kiara was suddenly filled with fear, she didn't know what was inside or if the vampire would actually be able to do anything to save her if something happened. With a glance up to the sky she saw that the sun was maybe an hour away from setting so the vampire would not be in full power for at least that long. She didn't get much time to think about though because Shar'i walked right in making up her mind for her.

The forest was different than any Kiara had seen before; the trees covered the entire area and were filled with dark green leaves. Even with the absence of any sunlight the plants on the ground grew strong and the entire area was filled with more magic than Kiara had ever felt. Raven woke up from her nap and looked around the forest as well; excited to see some place new. They found the easiest path through the forest while Shar'i tried to sniff out a unicorn or something else.

Shar'i stopped walking suddenly and Kiara almost ran into her. The vampire crouched down and quickly moved ahead faster than Kiara could see. The fairy tried to follow as best as she could, but it was almost too dark for her to see a thing. The vampire came back shortly with a smile, "I found one."

The two fairies were excited as they followed Shar'i to the small clearing where she had just seen the unicorn. In the center of the clearing was a small pond filled with fish that almost blended into the water. The unicorn was drinking from the water completely unaware of its audience until Raven shrieked with delight and struggled to get down. The little fairy managed to squirm out of Kiara's arms and ran to the large creature hugging its leg.

Kiara watched in fascination as the unicorn lowered its head to nuzzle the child. It was not afraid at all, but kept a close eye on the vampire. Kiara slowly walked over and held out her hand hoping that it wouldn't run away. It stayed still for awhile until hearing something come from the other side of the clearing. An old woman came walking out and asked Kiara, "What are you doing in my forest?"

Figuring that this woman must be the seer fae she answered, "Hello, I am the Goblin Queen and I came with my daughter to explore." Raven was still playing with the unicorn and either didn't notice or didn't care what was going on between them.

"Come with me," the old woman said and turned back to walk into the forest. Kiara picked up her daughter and the three followed the fae until they reached a cave that looked like a small castle. "Only the fairy, the vampire stays outside and don't eat any of my animals." Shar'i glared at the woman and hissed before sitting down on a patch of moss to wait for Kiara to come back out. Kiara was frightened to go alone hoping that the vampire's superior hearing would be enough to help her if she needed it.

The inside of the castle cave was beautiful with gems of all sorts stuck into the walls like a mine. Raven tried to grab a few as they passed, but they were firmly stuck into the walls. The hallway continued for some time until they reached an opening covered with a dark red lace curtain. The old woman walked inside and Kiara followed to find an area that very much reminded her of her own living room. The woman sat down in one chair and motioned for Kiara to take the other across from her. "Now little fairy, I know you are curious of who I am and today I am in a good mood so I will allow you to ask me any three questions and then you will leave my forest."

Kiara looked at the woman surprised. Jareth had told her that she liked to play tricks on visitors not answer questions about the future, "I can ask three questions about the future?"

"Or the past or anything at all. I see all,"

Kiara smirked slightly, "If you can see the future then you know what questions I am going to ask."

The woman smiled as well, "I can see what you will ask and what you might ask and some of them have complicated answers because the future is never certain." The woman looked away for a few minutes her gray eyes looking more and more like a mist and then slowly returning to normal. "You want to know if what Jareth would have said if you offered to be the mother to his heir." Kiara nodded and waited to hear the answer. "Before Celestia moved in he would have said yes, but now the answer is less certain. You want to know when Raven will grow her wings and that will happen much sooner than you want it to. For your last question, will you ever bond with someone." Kiara waited patiently as the old woman looked into the future and finally the woman came out of her trance shaking her head, "There are many roads which you and he can take and only one will lead you two to a bond."

"So is that a no?"

The woman smiled slightly, "The future is never certain, if you manage to follow the one path and he does the same then you will find it where you both least expect." Kiara was about to ask more but soon found herself back in the clearing with her daughter playing with the unicorn. Shar'i was standing on the edge so as not to scare it away.

"Where did she go? How did we get back here?" Kiara asked looking around.

The vampire looked at her strangely and asked, "Who are you talking about and we've been here for an hour." Kiara's mouth hung open as she tried to understand what was going on. She was sure she saw the woman and was sure that it was real. With a sigh she decided that it must have been a trick or something and picked Raven up to go home, she found herself not really interested in being in the forest any longer.


	31. Getting Ready

A/N Own Nothing. Enjoy

* * *

Chapter 31 – Getting Ready

Jareth was surprised to see the girls come home so early with all that there was to see in the enchanted forest. He pretended not to be interested while at the same time knowing and hoping that Kiara would tell him anything interesting that she saw. Raven ran to the goblin king yelling something in her own gibberish. Kiara hung back and watched as he acted like he understood every word nodding along with her story. When she was done she went to get a horsey ride from a goblin leaving the two adults alone.

"I think she was trying to tell you that we saw a unicorn today and it actually let us pet him," Kiara said as she sat down at the window. Jareth nodded slightly returning to what he was reading.

"So no tricks? Any old ladies burying you deep in a flower bed and watering you or throwing you down an icy river?" Jareth asked bitterly.

Kiara raised her eyebrow and tried not to laugh; she had wondered what had happened to Jareth while he was there, but he wouldn't say. "No, but I think I did see her or I am just crazy." Jareth glanced up for a minute and she continued, "Well we were petting the unicorn and she came out and brought us to her castle cave thing. She said she would answer any three questions and afterwards we were back in the forest and I was the only one who remembered."

"Sounds like something she would do. What did you ask?"

Kiara sighed turning back towards the window, "It doesn't really matter; I didn't get the answers I was hoping for." It seemed slightly less important to her now that she had a daughter, but she didn't want to be alone. She was hoping to bond with someone, almost anyone would do; if it really was just a tiny chance that she would ever find that one person then she might as well forget it and stop looking for Mr. Right. At the very least if she didn't worry about it then she would be more likely to find it since the old woman said it would be in an unexpected place. "Would you be able to turn Katrina, Rubina and Shar'i into humans for me tomorrow? I need a girl's day of shopping, clubbing and drinking."

Jareth immediately wiped the concerned look off his face and shrugged, "I can easily change the dwarf and the fairy, but the vampire will still be a vampire aboveground. I can only give the illusion that they are human, she will still have to stay away from the sun and up there she will burn." He thought for a minute wondering what answer she got that was making her so upset, but shrugged it off; whatever it was she would get over it and he could easily distract her with some well placed insults.

"Ok, I'm going to call the girls and see if they are doing anything tomorrow and if Ludo and Didymus would mind watching Raven."

"Just leave her here," Jareth said before he could stop himself. He didn't want it getting out that he did actually enjoy being around the child. "A runner will be coming tomorrow and if she is here the child can have a playmate." Kiara nodded and walked out of the throne room to make plans for the next day.

Katrina quickly agreed never having seen the aboveground; Rubina was nervous about going up but eventually decided that it might be alright. The only person that took some convincing was Shar'i. "Are you nuts?"

Kiara rolled her eyes shaking her head at the vampire, "What, are you afraid of humans? The four of us will go and get our hair done, our nails done and we will dance and get drunk. Can vampires get drunk?"

"Yes we can, all those stupid aboveground books got it wrong. Anyway do you really think it's a good idea to put a blood sucker that close to so many fast beating hearts?" Shar'i and Kiara had only known each other a few days, but Shar'i felt comfortable enough with the fairy to actually treat her like another person and not like she was the queen.

"Just go hunt now and eat extra so you're nice and full when we go," Kiara answered. Shar'i looked like she was going to argue some more but instead pulled her hood over her head and jumped out the window. Kiara chuckled to herself thinking of how the windows were used as entrances and exits more often than the doors were.

When the four girls were ready they met in the lobby of the castle waiting for Jareth to come and change them into their human forms. Shar'i kept complaining that she didn't think it was a good idea and now that Katrina realized that she was going to be around a vampire all night she agreed. "Hello ladies," the Goblin King said as he came over to the little group. They watched as he moved close and slowly waved his hand over Rubina and Katrina. Almost instantly they were transformed; Rubina grew taller, but she was still fairly short. Katrina's wings disappeared as well as her fangs and her eyes changed to a more human looking green. Kiara looked over at Shar'i noticing that nothing really needed to change with her since she could retract her own fangs when she wanted too.

"Well I guess now that we all look the part we better get going. Thanks Jareth," she said quickly giving him a kiss on the cheek before transporting them all to the aboveground. Jareth stood there in shock for a few seconds his hand lightly touching the place she had kissed him. He shook himself out of it when a goblin announced that the runner was waiting for him. The runner had wished away his little two year old brother and like most was regretting it.

The girls appeared in the middle of a busy main street just outside of a salon. Kiara never knew why no one ever seemed to notice when she popped in and out of places, but she was glad anyway. She wasn't sure what city she was in, but it didn't really matter as long as someone could point her in the right direction. Shar'i starting freaking out about the cloak not hiding the sun well enough so she took the girls in ordering the works for all them and had a great time relaxing.

Rubina watched carefully as the woman put on the fake nails and kept insisting that they were much too long no matter how short the woman tried to cut them. Katrina and Shar'i were both laughing at the dwarf and got theirs done long and sharp. Kiara was relieved to see that they were all getting along and couldn't wait until they picked out something to wear that night.

The shopping trip was probably the most annoying even though it was still fun. All of the girls seemed to have extremely different tastes in clothing and were almost no help to each other. By the end of the trip it was about the right time to be heading out to the club and all of them hurried to get dressed in their newest purchases. Rubina bought a very simple brown mini skirt with a lighter brown top that was very plain. Kiara was wearing a very low cut black dress that had spaghetti straps and loose at the hips; she couldn't wait to start drinking so she wouldn't think about her scars being exposed. Katrina wore a dark green dress that looked like it belonged to Tinkerbell, with a low back and jagged edge bottom. Shar'i decided to go for a vampire type look with a purple corset with black lace that only barely covered her chest with the same mini skirt that Rubina was wearing, but in black. She just had to keep her cloak on until the sun was completely set.


	32. Girl's Night Out

A/N Own Nothing as usual. All love to my beta and notwritten

Chapter 32 – Girl's Night Out

Ready to go they got in a cab and headed towards the nearest club happy to find that it was already in full swing. They all got their drinks and started dancing as they talked more about the trip to the enchanted forest. "I think you should just forget about finding someone to bond with and start living it up more. You're the Queen for god's sake and you live on the outskirt of the goblin city," Katrina said as she brought over shots for everyone.

"Watch the language around the vamp," Shar'i said chasing the shot with her beer. She was trying to enjoy herself, but the smell of all the people was going to take some getting used to or a few more shots.

"I guess you're right, it's not like I don't have time or anything. I got lots of time now right?" Kiara asked and received cheers from her friends. They continued to dance together until Kiara accidentally bumped into a guy dancing behind her; she turned to apologize but the words never came out of her mouth. He was tall, very athletic with short light brown hair. He smiled brightly at her and the two started dancing together until she remembered that her friends were probably right behind her, but when she looked they all had split up and found their own partners. Kiara laughed wondering how jealous Hoggle would have been if he saw Rubina grinding against someone else.

"Can I get you another drink?" he asked.

"Sure," she answered as they walked over to the bar. They stayed at the bar talking for awhile finishing the drinks and getting another before going back and dancing again. She brought the guy, whose name she found out was Devin, over to meet her friends. Rubina quickly broke away from the guy she was with trying to hide the fact that she was blushing like crazy; Kiara understood though that she wanted to take advantage of being with someone that actually would dance with her. She got a surprise when she saw that Katrina and Shar'i were actually dancing back to back showing off for twin brothers they had just met. For some reason she expected them to not really like each other.

The group stayed together the rest of the night and afterwards went to a diner. Kiara would have probably stayed all morning, but she noticed Shar'i getting antsy and constantly looking out the window. It was getting close to sunrise and she was probably getting hungry as well. Before they left Devon took her aside and asked for her number. Kiara started to write a number down and then stopped remembering that she didn't have a phone anymore, "Uh, Sorry that was my old phone number. I actually don't have a phone right now, but I'll give you my email." She scribbled that down and hoped that he wouldn't think that she was lying to him. Phones would never exist in the labyrinth as long as there were mirrors and almost no one would want or need to communicate to the aboveground. He gave her a small kiss before she left and if Shar'i didn't pull her away she probably would have stayed with him.

"Yes, yes, he is cute and all, but you've got one hungry vamp on your hands and sunrise is coming quick," Shar'i said as they found a relatively quiet spot to transport back to the castle. They all went to sleep in Kiara's bedroom since no one felt like making the trip to their respective homes.

When Kiara finally woke up she saw that Rubina and Shar'i had already left and that Katrina was still snoring softly on the floor. She quietly stepped around the sleeping fairy and went to find out what Raven was up too. She found her with Jareth in the library pretending to read a book to a boy that looked about her age. She looked up and smiled at her mother before returning to the boy.

"I see my daughter has a boyfriend already, who is he?" Kiara asked as she took a seat across from Jareth.

He looked over at the little boy and shrugged slightly, "He is one of the few that I can't place what he is going to be or where he belongs."

"You weren't able to do that with me either. What's his name and what are you going to do with him until you find out what he is?" Kiara asked. He was a cute little boy with dark blond hair and bright blue eyes; he seemed to be very interested in whatever Raven was saying.

Jareth smirked, "You won't believe me if I tell you his name and I guess he will have to stay here until I can figure out where he belongs." Kiara looked at the Goblin King suspiciously and went to kneel in between the two kids. After talking to him for a few minutes she asked his name.

"Jay," the little boy answered. He took Raven's hand and started to pull her up to play a tag like game. Kiara watched as the two ran back and forth chasing each other.

"You were right, if you told me that I wouldn't have believed you. His name isn't Jareth though, I'll bet its Jason." Jareth shrugged, but the smirk stayed on his face. "Anyway, I met this guy aboveground and I'm hoping he will ask me out or something," Kiara said excitedly.

Jareth gritted his teeth and pushed down the jealous feelings, "Do I look like one of your girlfriends?" Kiara's eyes widened not sure what caused Jareth's sudden change in mood. He felt her get upset and got more annoyed that now he was not only jealous, but he also had that guilty feeling.

"Sorry," she said slowly, "We'll leave your highness alone now." She got up and took Raven home immediately opening her laptop hoping to find an email from Devin. Sadly there wasn't one, but she still had hope. "Well Raven, you want to hear all about my evening don't you." The girl nodded and listened while Kiara talked and made her food. They ate dinner together and now it was Kiara's turn to listen to Raven's day. She only understood a few words but "Jay" was mentioned a lot.

A few days later Kiara was making dinner when she heard a knock on the door; she was thinking a little too hard and the noise scared her causing her to cut her hand. "Damn it," she said to herself and wrapped one of her kitchen towels around it and went to the door. Shar'i was standing at the doorway with her cloak on; Kiara quickly slammed the door shut again hoping that she didn't get the scent of her blood.

"I just ate," Shar'i called through the door, "I'm not going to go crazy over your cut although it does smell delicious." Kiara slowly opened the door with a disgusted look on her face.

"I really didn't want to know that," she said as she stepped aside for the vampire to come in. Shar'i gave Raven a little pat on the head and continued towards the kitchen. Raven wasn't too sure whether or not she liked the vampire, but so far it didn't really matter.

"Did that guy ever do whatever it was that you humans do?" Shar'i asked.

Kiara rolled her eyes and laughed opening up her laptop, "Email and I don't know I haven't checked today or yesterday. Probably not though." She clicked the button for her email to open and turned back to cooking. Shar'i moved the machine closer to her to get a better look at it. She shook her head; there was no way she would ever understand humans.

"Wasn't the guys name Devin?" she asked. Kiara nodded not looking up from the vegetables she was chopping. "Well I don't know if this is an email, but here is his name." Kiara immediately turned around and clicked on the email; it was fairly short, but it was asking her on a date for that weekend. "Hmm, I wonder if I had this email thing if I could have had a date with the twins."

"I can't believe he actually asked me out," Kiara said excitedly. She would have to work out the time difference to find out exactly when it was, but for now she sent back a reply saying she was free anytime. Shar'i continued to sit at the table and listen while Kiara happily talked about how great Devin was.

"You're as bad as a teenage fiery," Shar'i complained light heartedly, "It's just a date; it's not like it's your wedding day or anything," Kiara childishly stuck her tongue out at the vampire and thought about that for a second. She would never actually get to have a wedding since she was married to Jareth and he kept it hidden from everyone for the first few months. She shrugged it off deciding that it didn't really matter. She fed Raven and sat at the table to eat pushing a small bit towards Shar'i.

"Do vampires eat normal food?" Kiara asked. She didn't remember the book she read saying anything about food besides the obvious. Shar'i slowly picked up a carrot off the plate and took a bite. "Alright so I guess that means you can eat."

"Yes, but it doesn't really have any taste," she said as she finished off the vegetable and watched Raven play with hers. "That kid is still at the castle and he is a noisy one; if Jareth doesn't find a place for him soon the goblins are going to accidentally lose him in an oubliette."

Kiara laughed almost choking on her dinner, "Wow, loud enough to annoy a goblin, I can't even imagine. He seemed so quiet when Raven was with him. Maybe he just wants a playmate, a human playmate? Raven, would you like to play with Jay again today?" Raven nodded and started banging her spoon against the table refusing to stop until they left for the castle.


	33. Dates

A/N Own Nothing

Chapter 33 - Dates

Celestia and Jareth were both sitting in the throne room trying to keep Jay entertained. It seemed the ruler of the vampires was starting to become more human the longer she was with normal people. She even had a half smile on her face when the boy brought her a picture he drew. Raven ran over to her new friend and sat down to color with him. Kiara couldn't help but notice that Jareth looked really happy at least for him and he was sitting right next to Celestia almost touching her. She knew that she had no right to be jealous, but she wished that she was able to keep him happy and not always annoy him.

"Oh Jareth, couldn't we keep him?" Celestia asked as she ran her hand through his soft blond hair.

Jareth smirked slightly and shook his head, "He belongs somewhere and as soon as I know where that is then that is where he is going."

"Oh," Celestia pouted slightly, "Well I guess we will just have to wait to have our own." Kiara sat down on the other side of Jareth hoping not to get him in a bad mood like the other day. She wanted to tell Jareth that Devin had contacted her and she wanted to share her good news, but Jareth had made it clear before that he didn't want to hear what she had to say.

"Would you mind if the goblins watched Raven at some point this weekend? I'll be going aboveground," Kiara asked looking at Jareth who just shrugged.

"You are the queen, they will do as you command," Jareth answered coldly and turned back to his consort. Shar'i kept her distance and stayed quiet while with the fae like a good servant should, but she was very curious at the way the king and queen kept acting towards each other. She shook her head trying to figure out how some days they were best friends and others they seemed like enemies. It wasn't until Kiara was getting ready for her date that realization dawned on her.

"You love Jareth," Shar'i said. It was not a question and it caught Kiara off guard.

"No, not really," she stammered throwing another outfit to the floor. "I care about Jareth, because I care about the labyrinth and he is fun to be around when he isn't being too much of a jerk, but I don't love him like a husband even though that's what he is."

Shar'i rolled her eyes, "Don't pretend around me; I may not be a mind reader, but whenever you see him and Lady Celestia together you get jealous and I'll bet that any time you mention another guy he gets pissy." Kiara was about to argue, but she was right.

"Alright, I love him in some way and maybe he loves me in some way, but we aren't meant to be together or anything. We have just been through a lot together in the short time we've known each other and I think that's just made everything very confusing." Kiara finally selected an outfit and started working on makeup while Shar'i sat behind her, "Do you ever find it eerie that you don't have a reflection?" Shar'i glared at her, but Kiara was looking into the mirror and couldn't see it. "Seriously, how do you put all that eyeliner on without it or is that why you use so much? If I called you on the mirror would you show up?"

"Don't make me bite you," Shar'i hissed and then answered, "There is nothing wrong with the amount of eyeliner I use and yes I show up if you call me. I can see myself in the mirror, but no one else can." Kiara smiled happy that her new friend didn't really mind her asking questions and that she had successfully steered the conversation away from her and Jareth.

Kiara woke up the next morning feeling very happy. Her life had changed a lot in the past year from a dull meaningless existence to having friends, date and a daughter. She rolled over remembering the great night she had with Devin. The date started with a movie but neither one really paid attention to it and thankfully there weren't a lot of people in the theater or someone would have been pissed off at them if they happened to be sitting near them. After the movie they went to a nice dinner, it wasn't really fancy but it was nice enough and then back to Devin's place. Kiara was a little nervous about being alone in his house since they didn't really know each other, but she reminded herself that she could always transport back home should something happen. They spent a lot of time together in bed before Kiara left to go home. She hadn't felt so relaxed since she had been with Gannon.

She eventually came out of her happy memories when she heard someone walk in through her front door. Positive that she had locked it she readied a magical bolt to throw at whoever was sneaking into her house. Peeking out through the door she didn't see anyone in her kitchen, but then heard a noise in Raven's bedroom. Slowly she moved to the door and threw the bolt in at the man in black standing in the middle of the room. She hurried another bolt when she heard him yell at her and almost went to throw it as well before she recognized the glittery black leather jacket. "Jareth?"

He looked furious, but stayed where he was, "Why did you attack me?" He got hit in the arm which she could see was hurting him now.

"I'm sorry, you scared me. What are you doing in Raven's room and since when do you use the front door?" Kiara asked as she slowly backed away from him. Seeing Jareth angry scared her for some reason even if he never really hurt her before.

"I was getting some things for your daughter and the boy." She could see that he was trying not to let his temper go so she thought of something to make him happier.

"Want some waffles?" It worked perfectly and he nodded heading for the kitchen and taking his normal seat. "I know you are not one of my girlfriends, but I have to tell you I really like that guy I was with. With any luck he will keep asking me out and you can spend even more time with your step-daughter."

Jareth took a slow deep breath calming himself before answering, "Don't call her that. I don't want to think of myself as a father, not yet." He took off his jacket to see if he could get a better look at his arm which felt like it was broken.

The shirt was long sleeved and tight so Kiara came over to help him take that off as well, "I don't see why since you make a fine father and you are going to be a real one as soon as you and Celestia manage to do it. Now let me know if this hurts." Slowly she put her hand on Jareth's arm where it was hit, but he refused to tell her that it really did hurt even with the slightest touch. She rolled her eyes at his stubbornness and pushed harder making him jump slightly. He glared at her, but she smiled right back, "I am more powerful than I thought. I really did some damage and I think you need to put that arm in a sling unless you can heal it yourself."

Jareth smirked, "My abilities lie more in the area of destruction instead of healing." Kiara laughed at the king and helped him get his shirt back on trying not to be too turned on by the greatness of his body. She went back to cooking and thought of something she wanted to ask.

"Do you want to keep Jay?"

Jareth shrugged or half shrugged since the other shoulder hurt to move it, "It's not really my decision."

"That's not what I asked."

"I don't hate the child, but unless he is going to be a fae it wouldn't really matter if I kept him or not," Jareth answered. Kiara laughed inwardly at the way he expressed his affection and the way Jareth was so easy to talk to when food was involved.

"What about Raven? Is she one of the few on your don't hate list?"

Jareth raised an eyebrow and nodded, "A list that has grown more in the past year than in the 2,000 years I've lived."

"Your 2,000 years old!" Kiara choked out. She never even thought to ask the Goblin King his age even though she knew it was a long time. "For some reason I thought you'd be closer to 1,000. You've lived almost three times as long as Gannon and yet you look almost the same age." A new thought occurred to her that if she only lived for 2,000 years like most fairies then when she died Jareth would probably only be middle age. Jareth nodded again now realizing the same thing, although he was fairly sure that he could hire someone to help extend her natural life. It was rarely done, but Jareth could be very persuasive. Kiara looked out the window while the batter cooked watching some of goblins heading down the trail messing around as goblins do. She smiled and asked her favorite king another question that she often wondered, "How come you and Kenisha are so much nicer to your subjects than all the other fae?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jareth answered. He knew he was and that gave him a bad reputation with the other fae, but in his own mind he liked to believe that he was just as cruel as the rest of them.

Kiara leaned on the table staring into Jareth's mis-matched eyes, "No, no Goblin King, that's a bad boy. No lying to me." She smiled enjoying the reaction her teasing was getting her.

Jareth glared at the fairy, "I am not nice to my subjects; I just am more laid back than most fae." Kiara knew he wasn't telling her the whole truth, but he wasn't lying either.

"Alright Goblin King, you have to answer one more of my questions before I give you breakfast. If you could have an heir with anyone you wanted, who would you pick?" She turned away as she finished the question and put the waffles onto a plate. She prayed that fae didn't have such sensitive hearing like the vampires did or he would have been able to hear her heart pounding as she waited for the answer. Jareth didn't respond for awhile and eventually Kiara gave up and put the plate in front of him anyway.

"The woman I would choose is taken," Jareth answered quietly after he ate the last bite of his breakfast. He got what he needed from the baby's bedroom and poofed himself away. Kiara sighed trying to think of who Jareth was talking about eventually deciding that it was either Kenisha or Sarah.


	34. Bites

A/N Own Nothing, Enjoy

Chapter 34 - Bites

Kiara and Devin continued to go out frequently over the next few months, sometimes they were alone and sometimes they took Raven to some place she enjoyed. She really liked the zoo so they went back quite a few times. The two were getting really close and sometimes Kiara completely forgot all about the underground. Devin eventually asked her to go on a cruise with him for a week and she almost said yes, but remembered that she couldn't be away for that long. "Oh Devin, I don't think my job will let me take a week right now."

Devin put his arms around the girl looking confused, "You never really explained to me what your job was."

Kiara bit her lip happy that she didn't have her fangs in the aboveground or she would have cut herself, "I know and I want to but… it's classified." She nodded and continued, "Yeah, I work for the government." She held her breath hoping that he believed her; technically she did work for a government. It just wasn't a place he had ever heard of and the fact that she was actually a ruler didn't matter up there.

He didn't look convinced but shrugged and said, "Alright well see if you can and let me know." He gave her a long kiss and watched her walk out of his house. He loved her, but he wished that she wouldn't keep so many secrets from him.

Kiara showed up in Shar'i's bedroom and in the underground it was the middle of the night. It wouldn't have been so bad except that the vampire hadn't eaten yet and the fact that someone just appeared in her room startled her. Kiara found herself up against the wall and a hot searing pain in her neck. "Shar'i! Shar'i stop!" The vampire stopped drinking, but almost couldn't pull herself away. "Please, back off." Shar'i still couldn't bring herself to move away; she could hear the words, but the sound and the taste of the blood were too much to overcome. She was about to start drinking again when she felt something burn her. She jumped back and found her shirt was on fire, as soon as she was able to put it out she hissed at the fairy and crouched down ready to attack again. Shar'i was no longer in her own mind; she was too deep in bloodlust.

"Nice vampire, good vampire, stay there," Kiara said as if she was talking to a dog. She was glad that the fire was still in her hands to at least partially discourage the creature from trying to come at her again. They stayed motionless for about ten more minutes before Shar'i straightened up licking the blood off of her lips.

"You taste really good," she said with a smirk. Kiara let out an annoyed sigh and put out the fire; she was sure that her friend was back and now she could deal with the bite on her neck.

"I'm not going to change now am I? Because I already have enough on my plate without having to hide from the sun as well," she asked as she sat in front of Shar'i's mirror and began washing her neck off. Shar'i stayed on the opposite side of the room and threw her a few towels.

"No, you won't change. Don't you know better than to sneak up on a dangerous creature?"

"Ick, this looks nasty and Jareth is going to be pissed off when he sees it."

Shar'i nodded and made a bet with herself about how long she would be able to hide from Jareth before he locked her away in some dungeon with no access to blood and a view of the morning sun. "He is very protective of you isn't he?"

"Hmm, I wonder why, oh yea because he dies if I do," she answered bitterly. She gingerly touched the bruise forming on her neck as she wondered how much larger it was going to get. "Hand me one of your scarves, maybe I can hide it." Shar'i threw her a brown silk scarf and she wrapped it around her neck. "Well I was going to tell you that Devin invited me to go on a cruise with him, but now I think I won't."

"A cruise? Well that sounds… interesting, a little too sunny for me though."

Kiara turned around with an annoyed look, "A cruise means that I'll be gone for a week. I don't even know if I can leave the labyrinth that long; I don't even know if my short leavings are doing any harm." She finished fixing the scarf and went to ask Jareth if it would be safe. "If Jareth isn't asleep then now would be the best time to talk to him; he is usually in a better mood at night." Shar'i watched her leave and then crumbled down to the ground; she tried to act like what she did was not a big deal, but inside she hated herself for it. This wasn't the first time she wished that she was born human.

Kiara found Jareth sitting on his balcony holding Raven. The little fairy was asleep and the king was close to it as well. She landed as quietly as possible taking the seat next to him. A smile crept on her face as she watched the sleeping king.

"Do you plan on sitting there all night?" Jareth asked without opening his eyes.

"Well you two do look cute together," Kiara answered. "How long am I able to stay aboveground without harming the labyrinth?" Jareth cracked open one eye just a bit, but didn't answer. "Devin asked me to go on a cruise with him for a week, but I didn't know if that was too long." Jareth shrugged, he didn't have a clue how the stone worked and now he was wishing that he didn't burn the book Tia had showed him. "Oh, well I guess I'll have to tell him I can't go."

Jareth felt her disappointment and almost wanted to tell her to go anyway, but on the other hand that meant she would be alone with that guy for a whole week and for some reason he didn't like that. While he thought of a solution he also sensed that something was making her nervous. It was barely there, but he was still curious. He opened both of his eyes and saw her mindlessly playing with the end of the scarf like she does when she wears bracelets. "That thing looks terrible on you," Jareth said closing his eyes again. He didn't remember ever seeing her wear one before and that was a good thing, it just didn't look right on her.

Kiara's eyes widened slightly, "It's Shar'i's, I'm just borrowing it"

"Take it off and I'll come up with a solution so you can go on your little vacation," Jareth said sleepily. Kiara smiled at how easy it was to talk to Jareth when he was tired. It was really dark out so maybe she could hide the bruise with her hair she thought. Jareth opened his eye just enough to see her start to untie and continued, "I'll take Celestia on the cruise, she could use some sun. That way we will still be close and hopefully that will be enough." Kiara looked up happily about to say something when Jareth noticed a dark stain on the inside of the scarf. He glanced up Kiara and saw another dark stain on her shirt, without a second thought he poofed Raven into her crib and pushed away Kiara's hair.

"Ok Jareth, It's not that bad. It's not a big deal," Kiara said slowly trying to calm the king who was now wide awake. A storm started building around the labyrinth and the fae changed into his owl form flying away without a word. "Jareth!" Kiara yelled and started flying after him. They were headed to the forest behind the castle and Kiara started getting worried for her friend. "Jareth! Stop!" She landed near him and saw Shar'i in the middle of dinner, it only took about two seconds of watching that before the fairy had to run away to bring back up her own dinner. When she came back Jareth and Shar'i were gone with no sign of where they went.


	35. Punishment

A/N Own Nothing. Going to Post the Last two chapters today.

Chapter 35 - Punishment

When Jareth saw that the vampire had hurt his fairy he snapped; he found the vampire in the middle of drinking blood from a wolf and easily grabbed her by the hair. With a quick wave of magic he had her chained to the top of a mountain and was standing in front of her waiting for dawn.

"Please your highness, it was an accident. Queen Kiara transported herself into the room from the aboveground and startled me. I would have never purposely harmed her." Shar'i lost her bet to herself; she thought that Jareth wouldn't notice until the next day at least.

"I don't want to ever see you near my queen again," Jareth said angrily. "For your punishment you will remain on this mountain for three days." Shar'i almost started pleading with the Goblin King. Three days in the underground sun with no blood wouldn't kill her but it could make her go insane. The sun itself would make her feel like she was burning without actually hurting her and it also would drain her of energy making her extremely hungry. Jareth flew back to the castle not listening to a word the vampire was saying.

"Jareth, where did you put Shar'i?" Kiara asked when he returned to the castle.

"She will not hurt you again and you will not be going near her anymore," he answered coldly as he walked towards his bedroom. Kiara grabbed his arm and tried to convince him that she was fine, but he wasn't listening. He left her outside of his room where she just sat on ground trying to think of what she could do. In the end she went home hoping that Jareth would be more reasonable the next day.

Kiara came back to the castle the next morning hoping to find Jareth in a better mood, but instead he found him arguing with Celestia.

"What did you do to my vampire? I refuse to go on this cruise with you unless she comes as well."

Jareth still looked just as furious as he did the night before, "That thing drank from my fairy and could have killed her. I will not allow her to put the labyrinth in danger again."

"Your fairy is still alive now I demand that you release Shar'i," Celestia said raising her voice. Kiara was surprised that she cared so much for her servant or maybe she was just insulted that Jareth would take something that was hers.

"Please Jareth, the sun has been up for awhile now and I'll bet wherever you have her she is right in it. Let her go," Kiara pleaded kneeling down in front of Jareth. "You can't keep me protected from everything you know and I can defend myself, I burned her to get her off of me." Celestia looked a little pissed off about that, but didn't say anything.

"Fine, I will retrieve her and she can go on cruise, but if one more thing happens then she will no longer be welcome in my kingdom," he said slowly. He flew out the window and out of his kingdom to the mountains. The sun was hitting the vampire with full blast, her eyes were closed and fangs exposed in a constant hiss.

She heard someone come near her; she could hear the blood rushing and she jumped to try and catch him, but he was just out of her reach. "I will let you out, but if you bite me I'll drop you down the mountain. After all this sun exposure I am sure you can't fly." Shar'i listened and held back every instinct that was telling her to attack.

She waited for Jareth to unshackle her before asking, "Why did you set me free?"

Jareth picked her up and started flying home as he answered, "Kiara likes you for some reason. I did not want to go against her wishes."

Shar'i smiled slightly at the king still trying her best to contain urge to rip out his throat, "If you don't mind me asking, your highness, why isn't she giving you an heir instead of Celestia?"

"I do mind blood sucker, now keep quiet," Jareth commanded and Shar'i immediately shut up. With a sigh she realized that talking to Jareth wasn't anything like talking to Kiara. They finally reached home where Shar'i could safely shut herself up in her dark room.

Kiara gave Jareth a big hug when he got back, "Thank you Jareth; I would have been really upset if something happened to her. Although I am worried she will be lonely on the cruise, she can only come out at night and she'll feel like a servant."

"She is a servant," Jareth responded.

"No she is my friend and I don't want her to be unhappy."

Jareth rolled his eyes and smirked as he knew exactly what she wanted, "Fine the dwarf and the fairy can go as well."

Kiara almost jumped up and down with excitement, "And Hoggle too right? Rubina couldn't possibly go without Hoggle

"Fine Hogwart may go as well," Jareth answered pushing the fairy off of him. She jumped on his back to give him another hug and kiss on the cheek. This was going to be an interesting week.


	36. Unexpected Things

A/N Own Nothing, Posted two chapters today. This is the end so anyone that wants to review before its over click the little button and tell me what you thought. Hope everyone enjoyed the story.

Chapter 36 – Unexpected Things

Devin was happy to see hear that Kiara was able to go and soon it was time to leave. They got onto the boat and found their cabin and took some time to enjoy the comfortable bed. Afterwards the headed towards the pool and Kiara smiled seeing some of her friends were already there. She brought Devin over to introduce him to everyone. "Devin, there are some of the people I work with over at the pool."

"Why are they all here?"

"How do you think I got the week off?" she said with a wink. He laughed and followed her over to where Jareth and Celestia were sitting sunbathing. "Hi Jareth."

The Goblin King looked up to see Kiara in a tiny blue bikini; his eyes lingered on her body much longer than Devin and Celestia would have liked. He felt her start getting anxious and moved his eyes the rest of the way up. "Well little fairy, this must be the man that you keep leaving your daughter on my doorstep for."

Kiara shook her head at the king, "Devin meet Jareth and his girlfriend Celestia." The two fae just nodded a greeting and went back to their sunbathing. She sighed and brought Devin over to meet Katrina, Rubina and Hoggle who were much nicer to him than the fae were.

When they were finally alone swimming in the pool Devin had to ask, "Why do they call you a fairy?"

Kiara almost laughed realizing that they still talked to her like she was underground, "It's a nickname. Later tonight you can meet my friend Shar'i and Jareth calls her a vampire because she has a skin condition that doesn't let her be out in the sun." Devin nodded still not understanding where Kiara got her nickname from, but he decided that it didn't matter and started swimming with her again.

Jareth sat in his chair feeling the jealousy boil up inside him. It was one thing to know that Kiara was interested in another man, but now he had to sit here and see it for a whole week. Katrina was watching him closely wondering why he seemed to be so angry with her fellow fairy, but only one thing came to her mind and it couldn't have been true, could it?

That evening Katrina called Shar'i, Rubina and Hoggle together. "Ok people, Jareth loves Kiara and Kiara loves Jareth. We all know that, but for some stupid reason they don't. We need to get them together tonight."

"She keeps using the stupid excuse that it's too confusing and I think since the seer told her that she would bond with someone someday so she thinks she can't be with Jareth," Shar'i added while wishing they could get this meeting over with so she could find something to eat.

Eventually they came up with their plan. Shar'i took Celestia to see the fish under the water while Hoggle and Rubina kept Devin entertained leaving a note for Kiara and Jareth to meet each other near the pool. The two found each other and waited to hear what the other one wanted.

Katrina stood behind and watched as they made their normal small talk and fake arguments. They weren't getting anywhere even if they were alone, they needed a little push. Katrina used her fairy magic to turn herself into a shadow getting herself close to Kiara's ear she whispered to her to tell Jareth what she felt. She did the same for Jareth and melted back into the shadows.

"Did you hear something?" Jareth asked turned around and looking at the empty deck.

"No," Kiara said. Her heart pounded as something in her mind told her that this was the best possible time for them to talk about their relationship. "Jareth we need to talk about us."

Jareth froze thinking the worst. He knew that she enjoyed being with that Devin and the seriousness in her voice made him believe that she was going to leave the labyrinth for him. "Don't tell me."

"I have to," Kiara said trying not to shake. "I really like Devin, but… there is someone I love more and if he feels the same way I need to know before I make a decision."

Jareth looked slightly confused, "Don't leave the labyrinth."

"I wasn't planning on it. Jareth what would you say if I said I wanted to be the one to give you an heir?" Kiara's heart pounded and every second Jareth didn't answer was breaking it.

"Why didn't you say you wanted that before?"

Kiara shrugged looking at the ground, "I didn't know before. Sometimes I can't stand you Jareth, but other times I… I think I love you." She shook her head trying to keep tears from forming. "Forget it. It doesn't matter; I shouldn't have brought it up." She started to leave but an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her back.

"I don't hate you," Jareth whispered into her ear, "And if you promise not to tell anyone I said this… I love you too." Kiara turned around with a surprised look. Jareth laughed, "I can't stand seeing you with that human and I hate seeing you get hurt. Most of all I hated it when you left before and not because I was going to die." Kiara couldn't believe that he was actually fully opening up to her. "Kiara I wouldn't hate it if you gave me an heir and spent the rest of your life living with me in the castle."

Kiara smirked, "Wouldn't hate it? Does that mean you will tolerate it? Or will you like it?"

Jareth smiled, "You can figure that out yourself."

Kiara broke up with Devin the next day and all of them returned to the underground. Celestia moved back to the vampire caves, but Shar'i stayed in the labyrinth. Katrina left her clan and moved in with Shar'i. Rubina found out shortly after her return that she was pregnant and Hoggle couldn't have been happier.

Kiara and Raven moved into the castle and on that day found Jareth and Jay in the throne room. Jareth had some good news for her, "Jay has completed his change to a fae and it seems that he belongs with me. He will be my heir."

"That's great!" Kiara said cheering giving Jareth a long kiss, their first kiss since admitting their love. Fireworks were shooting through the skies and magic swept around them. "What was that?" Kiara asked.

Jareth's eyes widened, "What you've been waiting for although I don't know how." Kiara couldn't believe it, but she could definitely feel it a bond, a pull, a need to be with Jareth. They bonded. They stared at each other for quite some time before they felt it again but to the right of them. They saw Raven and Jay staring at each other strangely. "Well that might be weird," he said.

"They just….?" Kiara asked in amazement. Jareth nodded as the two toddlers held hands walking over to their toys to play. Kiara looked up at Jareth and laughed giving him another passionate kiss. For the first time in over 1,000 years there was a lot of love in that castle.


End file.
